By: Rick Landers
French-born master fingerstyle guitarist Claude Bourbon hails from Britain, but finds himself traveling the globe strapped to his trusty Gibson J-45 acoustic dreadnaught.
Whether he’s playing a straight blues, thumping out some heartbeat R&B, or his own cauldron of styles that may include Flamenco, American roots music, British Isle stylings, coupled with nuances of New Orleans jazz, Bourbon transitions between them all with an intactness, and an easy and oftentimes syncopated style.
His guitar style is fluid without a sense of tension, yet drives us to musical destinations that are at once comfortable, yet hip and off the beaten track of radio standards. He has creative flair for the original, even when he covers songs that are well-known, like “St. James Infirmary Blues” or “Crossroads”.
Many find they prefer music in his native French, like the haunting and reflective J’ai reprise la Route or his C’est Dimanche.
Whether he’s at work performing for a group of French language students or a group living in Assisted Living residences, Claude has the musical chameleon inventory and licks to be culturally unique or complement the music loved by nearly any audience.
In the finest sense, singer-songwriter instrumentalist, Claude Bourbon, is a French road “dawg” traveling the globe with his music and has played in Britain, Australia, Switzerland and other distant lands. And he’s shared the stage with the likes of: Charlie Morgan (Elton John, Gary More0; Steve Grossman (Miles Davis), Herbie Armstrong (Van Morrison) and countless other world-class musicians.
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Rick Landers: The last time I saw you perform your guitar of choice was a Gibson J-45. What other guitars have you owned and what is it about the Gibson that makes it your guitar of choice?
Claude Bourbon: I have a few other acoustic guitars, steel and nylon strung, that I mostly use to record. One is an old parlour guitar made in 1850 which is nylon strung and has the perfect sound to play those Renaissance pieces.
I also own a Vincente Carillo, a flamenco negra, hand-signed by Paco de Lucia and his brother, Ramon. I like recording with Spanish guitars, as Spanish music has a big influence on my music. I’ve also been recording with a guitar given to me by a luthier from Salida, Colorado, a guy name Jeff Bamburg. Also, have another J-45, a Custom made.
For the live performances I almost always play my “Mama” Gibson J-45. Bought it new seventeen years ago, played it everyd ay ever since, toured the world, hundreds of gigs every year, never been re-fretted and she’s never let me down.
Rick: What musical route did you take to get to your fingerstyle playing today and how would you describe your playing style or styles?
Claude Bourbon: I started off in the ’70s by learning classical guitar. So, as you know, with that kind of music you have to finger pick your strings the right way and also had to grow my finger nails on the right hand. So, that is how the finger picking thing started for me. Did that for about 5 years in a music school in Fribourg, Switzerland. My teacher, Irene Latorre, was Spanish, so it might be where I got my early Spanish music influences.
I liked it, but realized that the discipline of a classical musician was not for me.
For the next ten years I forgot about finger picking my way on the guitar and went on to play electric with bands all over Europe.
Rick: What can you tell us about your most recent album release, how it came about and some of the challenges musicians face in pulling together an album, selecting the songs to include, artwork decisions, and how involved you are in the production technical side or recording, mixing and other aspects of making an album?
Claude Bourbon: My latest CD Cold River has been mostly recorded here at home in the North of England. I always have bits and pieces of music that I record on my phone whenever they come to me, so I’m never short of musical ideas. Up until now I have had most of the lyrics written by a guy from up here in the North, a guy named Tim Leaning.
He would email me some texts and I put them into music, worked pretty good so far. Unfortunately he seems to have run dry these days and I’m looking for someone else for the next album. Or maybe I do an instrumental one or a French one.
For this last one I’ve recorded a couple of songs at Wishbone Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and had it mastered there, as well.
I like putting the artwork together, it’s just a shame that those CDs are so small that you can hardly see what’s on the cover. I would really love to do a vinyl someday.
Rick: What have your experiences been touring with a band, if any, and what are the benefits of traveling light, running solo and only depending on yourself?
Claude Bourbon: Touring with a band was a lot of fun, touring solo can be a bit boring at times. On the other hand relying on yourself gives you more flexibility and most importantly….you don’t have to split the money!
Rick: You’ve explored and study several different styles of music. Have you ventured into music many of us haven’t explored much, like Indian, Mali, or other maybe more exotic music?
Claude Bourbon: Coming from Switzerland I should have explored the Yodel a little or transpose the Cor des Alpes music to guitar…..not too late!
Claude Bourbon: Music is like talking, the more words you know, the more options you have to express yourself. The technique enables you to play whatever comes off top of your head. Once you know what you want to talk about, then it’s a lot easier to improvise and embellish the conversation.
Rick: Have you ever hauled your guitar out to busk and play just for the fun of it and do you find different kinds of venues offer you different degrees of flexibility or more freedom to take musical risks, like improvising?
Claude Bourbon: I’ve actually never been busking. That is out of my comfort zone and from what I see people don’t pay attention, it’s like playing in a bar, you are the intruder. I love people coming to a show, they dress up, they look forward to the concert, and then they come to your place. They are your guests. If the sound is good, usually you know it’s going to be a good night, musically speaking.
Rick: What kinds of disciplines did you have to develop that may not have been natural for you in order to have a sustainable career that demanded some attention to the business side of things or do you have help in that regard?
Claude Bourbon: I am really lucky I have the best manager in the world and she takes care of all the things that I would be too impatient to do, and not qualified to deal with.
Rick: Many performance artists I know have developed several revenue streams to pay the bills. The perform, the teach or present seminars/workshops, do session work and other things. And some make albums with specific themes to reach certain demographic groups, like children’s albums. What approach have you decided on to keep bucks coming in, so as not to rely on a single source of income?
Claude Bourbon: My main income comes from the live performances and CD sales, but whenever I can or I am asked I love to go and play in nursing homes. Not doing it to be paid. Playing for the elderly is very rewarding because you might think they’ve seen it all and that its going to be difficult to get them interested. But, not at all, you start to play and we are all at the same level, same age all together in the same boat.
Rick: Have you found that your guitar skills reach plateaus and you have to work hard to reach the next level or to be comfortable playing a new style of guitar. What advice would you give to more novice guitar players to overcome barriers in their skills development?
Claude Bourbon: Yes, sometime you feel you’re not progressing, feeling like stuck playing the same over and over again, but then all of a sudden you may change the tuning of your guitar or just making a mistake can open a door to a whole new world, and then you are traveling in there for the next five years or so, finding new ideas, new music.
Exactly what happened to me when by chance or luck I ran into G-minor tuning. Never heard or seen anybody playing that tuning but I can say that it has changed my life for the last fifteen years.
Claude Bourbon: That’s not always been easy for me, working the crowd. I don’t see myself as an entertainer, more a musician and story telling is not really my thing. I am more a dream maker. Having said that, you feel more comfortable after a few years doing it.
Rick: What strings are you using, do just buy a standard set or do you mix and match gauges to suit your likes? In the past, guitarists would boil their strings to clean them and to extend their lives – ever done that or have you always just bought another set of strings?
Claude Bourbon: I’ve been using the same strings for years D’Addario EJ16. Clean them with Fast fret after each gig and change them every two to eight gigs depending on how sweaty your hands are.
Rick: What new projects do you have underway at the moment or have planned for the near future?
Claude Bourbon: I have a new record that I’d love to put out this year. It’s called Home Cooked. It’s a collection of instrumentals and songs. a fusion of classical, spanish and blues.
Rick: Have you found audiences much different around the world or are they just unique and can’t be defined in some general cultural manner?
Claude Bourbon: Audiences are the same everywhere, as long as they like the music then we speak the same language.
Rick: Who proved to be a big influence on you and your career, someone who boosted your confidence or musical direction – someone you’d like to thank?
Claude Bourbon: That would be the guy who ask me to join his band back in 1984. His name is Hugo Spencer, a Belgian musician from Antwerpen, Belgium.
Hugo passed a few years ago. He was a lot older than me and had been around for quite a few years when I met him. He thought he knew everything and I learned a lot by not doing the same mistakes. We had a lot of fun during the fiche years I played in the band.
