Peter writes the following…
“In 1980 I was on tour in the US with a local Texas guy, singer/guitarist Floyd Moore. We played in a quartet at small bars in Port Aransas, TX. Oil rig workers out in the Gulf of Mexico would come there in the evenings. The band was very good. I was the missing link in the whole thing. Floyd was a wonderful musician. Very basic. Mississippi-Chicago-Texas style. Very, seemingly, simple playing but so damn hard to copy. It was about tone, phrases, vibrato and not least about pausing. Having the timing, too. He was incredibly good! I was a European hot-shot guitarslinger with the right tools; a 57 Goldtop with humbuckers, the right amp, knew all sorts of scales and I could play fast and complicated – over the three chords we played. Floyd gave me solos in almost every song. I played and played, spun myself into all sorts of and almost impossible phrases, which were not at all consistent with the blues songs Floyd and the band were playing.
Every time I played a solo, some of these oil riggers got up and went to order more booze at the bar – for themselves (not for me). When Floyd played, they shouted encouragement, during every break he took in the improvisation. I went home to the hotel the first night, 40 degree heat and 90% humidity and thought the audience was ignorant, to say the least. The next night it was the same, despite a new audience. I still couldn’t understand why I didn’t “click” with the audience. The third night and the third audience, I started listening to what and how Floyd played. How he COMMUNICATED with the audience through his improvisations. Then it dawned on me: He was the musician, he understood the deep elements of the blues, the depth of music and improvisation. I was just a “show off”, who believed that the more you know and the faster you can show all that you can do – the better guitarist you are. Oh well.
It took me years to get over it. And to understand what it’s really about. To say something with what you play. Damn – it was hard to change. The Boogie Kings – Live at Engelen was a first step on the road. Even though I still had a hard time resting in the notes. But, at least it had started to swing a little. It became a kind of mix of what Floyd taught me and what I had in my own baggage.
Today, however, I feel good about my own playing. I play mostly to feel joy myself, and then it seems that others do too. And I enjoy playing much more now – all thanks to Floyd.”
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