By Colin Larkin
Page 257: MICHAEL MESSER
Reproduced by kind permission of the publishers MUZE UK
b. Michael Messer, 28 February 1956, England.
Michael Messer is the pre-eminent UK guitarist to
incorporate the National steel guitar, as well as slide guitar, into his
acoustic performances. He won the UK Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year
award in 1991, sponsored by the British Blues Connection, though this
was as much an endorsement for his capacity for incorporating styles
other than the blues into his playing. Musical ideas borrowed from
Hawaiian slide guitar, reggae, jazz and King Sunny Ade's worldbeat
sound all illuminate his playing. The latter style was particularly evident
on the breakthrough album that won him his initial strong notices,
Slidedance: "If you look at what was happening in this country, and also
what I was doing at the time, there's a big world music influence, which
we were all very into - I was also, at that time, producing tracks with
S.E.Rogie and with Ted Hawkins.....I intentionally made the album so it
wasn't a blues album." The same description could equally apply to his
1993 collaboration with Terry Clarke and the Lubbock, Texas, guitarist
Jesse 'Guitar' Taylor, entitled Rhythm Oil. The tour that accompanied its
release saw Messer experiment further with elements including 'house'
and reggae, with a version of Mississippi Fred McDowell's 'Worried Life'
offering an outstanding distillation of blues and contemporary music. He
also tours regularly with his own band, featuring Ed Genis (rhythm
guitar) and Andy Crowdy (stand-up bass). Further evidence of Messer's
standing came when Newtone Strings launched a new brand of strings
with Messer's name attached, specifically aimed at the National guitar.
