Rusty Red
Roots blues, rock, folk and a touch of jazz from incorrigible Brit guitar strangler Rusty Red.
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Abbey Grounds Abbey Grounds
A jazzy guitar instrumental on a summery theme celebrating the beautiful Abbey Grounds in Cirencester, England.
Take me down to Texas Take me down to Texas
an acoustic "demo" version of a Texas shuffle song by Rusty Red
"Rusty Red" is the Internet name of blues enthusiast, guitarist, singer and songwriter Nigel Price.
Rusty plays electric and acoustic blues and ragtime guitar. He also plays bass and mandolin and other instruments too when he thinks he can get away with it.Band/artist history
Now concentrating on playing the blues, Nigel has been playing guitar since 1973 and as well as playing solo has over the years been a member of any number of obscure folk and rock bands that no one here will remember and that few enough people had ever heard of even then.
His first group was mid-70s psychedelic student rock outfit . He subsequently (1975-81) held down an irregular spot as locum bass player for Christian rock'n'roll band as well as playing folk gigs as part of a duo with friend Pete Gray (). Other ventures during the 70s included a brief spell as a member of folk trio with Mark Jolly and Sea Stone's Simon Law, and a long-standing involvement with playing both mandolin and bass at folk dances.
After an abortive attempt to relaunch his performing career with an ad hoc line-up known as , Nigel finally ended a five-year period away from performing during the 80s by joining versatile Christian worship/jazz/rock band . As well as turning out every Sunday to play for worship at Cirencester Baptist Church, Second Chance played local village halls, museums and hotels and even had a short residency at Cirencester's Brewery Arts Centre.
Second Chance's line-up changed many times over the years, but the band finally folded in the late 90s as family and career moves took key members away from Cirencester.
During the mid-90s, Nigel also played bass with heavy prog-rockers . Who can forget their heads-down-and-rocking appearance at a charity fundraiser at Cirencester College? (Who in their right mind would want to remember it???)
Since the demise of Second Chance, Nigel has continued to make sporadic live appearances with various short-lived line-ups, including a memorable gig at Pentecost 2000 at Cheltenham Racecourse. He still occasionally plays bass with the current worship Band at Cirencester Baptist Church, but is otherwise concentrating his musical efforts on launching a soulful folk-rock group called with other members of his family and finding a blues band for his blues incarnation "Rusty Red" to join.Have you performed in front of an audience?'Yes. I still play in and around Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England. I love it, and wish that I could play more often.'
Your musical influences
'I ought to claim all sorts of worthy bluesmen as my influences here, but the players I was listening to when I was learning the guitar all those years ago are still the ones whose influence is most obvious in my playing, even if my playing still hasn't reached anywhere near their standards. So think Ralph McTell, Martin Carthy and Marcel Dadi and then imagine those particular guitar styles being applied to the blues worlds of the likes of T-Bone Walker and SRV.
'Odd, I agree, but that's sort of what I do!
'If I had my way, I'd play with the joyful fluency of Django Reinhart, the cutting edge of Richard Thompson, the melodic urgency of Andy Powell and the soul of BB King.
'But I don't.
'Have a listen to what I do play, and see what you think.'What equipment do you use?
Takamine and Tanglewood eclectro-acoustic guitars, Angelica acoustic, Squier Stratocaster, Fender USA Jazz, Squier Musicmaster and Westone Spectrum basses, and Crafter electro-acoustic mandolin.Anything else?
'For anyone who wants to understand modern music, blues is essential and foundational. It's direct, emotional music that is simple to play and desperately difficult to master. I lost my way musically, but blues is helping me to find it again.' Rusty Red
Malmesbury,
United Kingdom
ID
167697
Contact
Sorry, this artist currently doesn't accept email messages.
Comments (5)
Rusty: Thanks for the encouragement! I really enjoyed listening to both of your songs. You don't give yourself as much credit as you deserve.
Thanks for suggesting that I joined Soundclick, Walter. It's a great way of making my music accessible. Glad you liked "Texas"!
Now I can listen to your songs with only a few seconds wait! Walter
Thanks for all the encouragement, Julian! I'm gradually getting my files transferred over to here and look forward to adding some fresh material in due course. Must catch up on your latest too! Cheers,
Hay Red Welcome to soundclick I could never get your other page to play I enjoyed take me down to texas. I am looking forward to hearing more as you post them here
Julian Myrick
