He may not be a household name, but Andy Aledort is pretty much a legend in the guitar world. Over the last 27 years, Aledort has sold over one million instructional DVDs, and continues to produce new DVD products for Guitar World and Truefire.
Aledort has also been featured nationally on Comcast Music On Demand and toured for ten years with Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers. He also participated in the Jimi Hendrix Tribute Tours for the last 17 years, and has appeared on stage with Paul Rodgers, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Mick Taylor, Mitch Mitchell, Billy Cox, Robert Randolph and others. But Andy isn't just a guitarist. He's a talented singer/songwriter who just recorded and released his new album 'Light Of Love.' Music-News recently had the chance to sit down with Andy and discuss the new record!
Tell us about Andy Aledort!I was born in 1956 and my mother, who was a singer and actress, bought me a guitar before I was born. Guitar players ask each other, "When did you get your first guitar?" but my answer fis that the guitar was there when I showed up!
Like many, The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in Feb 1964 was a life-changing event, and from that moment on it was all about learning every Beatles song. This soon expanded to the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who and other British Invasion bands.
By 1967-8 the focus became Jimi Hendrix and Cream and I soon formed a power trio (guitar-bass-drums) and played Hendrix along with the music of Cream, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter, The Allman Brothers, Mountain, Frank Zappa, Deep Purple, and anything with guitar as the focus.
Before getting involved in the guitar, my main focus was art--drawing and painting--starting from the age of 5. This continued and at 17 I enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in NYC where I studied for four years and earned a BFA.
Who are some of your musical influences? What else inspires you?My biggest musical inspiration is Jimi Hendrix; in my first band, we played over 30 Hendrix songs. I learned a lot from studying the guitar greats of the 60s--Beck, Winter, Zappa, Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, Ritchie Blackmore--but blues became a huge focus too--BB King, Albert King, Elmore James, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Willie Johnson. Seeing John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra at 16 in 1972 was the next earth-shattering moment, which sent me off on a course of studying jazz and the music of McLaughlin, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Parker, Pat Martino, Chet Atkins and many others. Besides music, I am hugely inspired by visual arts: Willem DeKooning, Picasso, Dali--and film: Luis Bunuel, Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, John Huston, Curtiz, and later Polanski, Fellini, Truffaut and others.
Congrats on the release of your new album 'Light Of Love'! We love it. What’s the story behind the record and its songs?Thanks and I'm glad you love the record! "Light of Love" is a collection of songs that come from a handful of different recording sessions over the last 27 years but were never released. Some of the songs only needed to be mixed, some needed one overdub like a vocal or guitar, and some needed a bit more.
One of the tracks, "Have Mercy On Me," was recorded with Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section, Chris Layton on drums and Tommy Shannon on bass. We had done the basic gtr/bass/drums rhythm track totally live (one take) about 20 years ago and about two months ago I added lead guitar/vocal, also totally live,. The result is a track that sounds totally live and I'm very happy with it.
The title track, "Light of Love," came out of some tough times and I think that comes across in the music. The same is true for, "Save Something For Me." Both songs always go over very well and seem to connect with the audience.
Who is one artist/band that you would love to tour with?I would love to tour with Lucinda Williams--I love her! And Bob Dylan would be pretty insane too. Let's add Willie Nelson (I have played shows with him when I played with Dickey Betts), John Scofield, Warren Haynes/Govt Mule, Aerosmith, and my good friends Joe Banasmassa and Eric Gales.
What’s next for your music career?To continue writing, recording and performing as much as possible. I have about three records worth of new material in the can and I plan to get started recording new music in the Spring of 2022. I hope "Light of Love" connects with people and will help get us to the next level of touring/performing.
What's your favorite thing to do when you're not doing music?Being with my family, playing and listening to music together, watching movies and sports, etc. The simple things! And reading of course; I particularly like autobiographies and biographies of musicians and historically important figures.
How can our readers find you online?I encourage everyone to check out my website,
andyaledort.com, where all of the latest news about music, gigs, lessons, writing and interviews is available. Facebook is facebook.com/AndyAledortMusic, Instagram is @AndyAledort, Twitter is @andyaledort, Spotify and iTunes is Andy Aledort.
