Chattanooga Times Free Press music reporter Casey Phillips spoke with Marietta, Ga.-based blues guitar goddess Liz Melendez about her musical philosophy, breaking down barriers and her new signature Delaney guitar model.
CP: Your dad had a great deal on your musical education. Was there one element of his teaching that stands out as having had a greater impact on you?
LM: Really, the philosophy of musicianship, not so much playing guitar and drums and making noise, he taught me that there was a philosophy behind being a great musician and playing with other people. He taught me that everything had a function and worked together. That makes all the difference in the world today for the musician I became.
CP: Does that make you a better band leader?
LM: Absolutely.
CP: Another thing your father instilled in you growing up was that you were good enough to hang with anyone so you should never feel intimidated. With all the people you’ve shared the stage with, has that been easy to uphold?
LM: Yeah, it just became like not even a thought. It just doesn’t occur to me to be intimidated because I was taught that early enough on that that it never occurred to me that that was an issue. It’s good to be oblivious to that type of thing because you’re free to experience music in a way that lets you take yourself out of it. It removes the ego and the fears and lets you be in the moment and experience it.
CP: Does that free you up, creatively, when it comes to things like solos?
LM: Absolutely. That is one of the precise reasons for that. You come up with a mindset where all these things can’t enter, so you’re free to flow artistically, unencumbered by things or yourself getting in the way of what you’re doing.
So I can play basically like I speak for that reason. It’s like I’m talking to you now and not thinking, “How am I going to put these sentences together?” It’s natural because you do it long enough that you become unconscious of it. That’s how music is for me today.
CP: When you’re on stage, with those concerns out of the way, what’s going through your head?
LM: My goal every performance is just to produce the most epic, dynamic performance I can possibly muster. That’s the goal every time. I play with players who also fall in with that very naturally, so we don’t have to worry about it or think about a lot. I don’t really think about a lot, and that’s the point. You want to position yourself with the caliber of players and the level of musical quality that allows you to be free like that.
Once and a while, if I’m not completely centered, if I’m not in that right-in-the-moment space, other thoughts will creep in. Even something like “Did I turn off the iron?” can drift into your mind, if you’re stuck in thought mode. I’m able to still play through that. Sometimes, I’ll have shows where I think I’m really off because I can’t get out of that thought mode and clear my head of thought.
When it’s really ticking and it’s magic, I’m not thinking of anything. Everything kind of disappears, everything falls away. Everything, the music, the room, the people, becomes greater than the sum of the parts. It’s a reciprocal experience that’s happening that becomes much bigger than anyone there. That’s the real magic. That’s what creates those epic moments. That’s the magic of musical performance for me.
CP: You’re obviously known for your skills on the guitar, but you’re also a singer and songwriter. With your obvious skills on the guitar, it might be easy for people to overlook that. How do those other elements of your musicianship fit into your life? Do they ever get pushed aside in favor of your guitar work?
LM: I’ve played guitar the longest so, by default, that’s the central thing. Plus, it’s the thing I enjoy the most. That’s why I say I’m a guitar player who sings, not a singer who plays guitar. So it can push aside the other things.
I think I get a pretty decent amount of appreciation for my songwriting because I have a good fan base that really enjoys the songs because they’re paying attention and are fans of the songs and not just me playing guitar. That’s true on the vocal side, too. I have fans of my voice. They say I’ve got such a great voice, but I see my voice as just part of the music.
The guitar is the central part of the music. I’m glad that I get to write songs and tell stories and use my voice to do it, so it all works together, but it depends on the mind of the observer. Some people really like the guitar and don’t care what I’m saying. Some people like lyrics and content in their songs and think it’s great that I play guitar, but they’re paying attention to the story.
It just depends. Guitar is flashy, though, so that gets more attention.
CP: Are there preconceptions or obstacles you have to overcome being a female lead guitarist? It seems like, from reading past interviews you’ve done, that that’s been an issue in the past.
LM: As evolved as we think we are and as many women as have broken through some barriers in music, it’s a very visceral thing you’re messing with for a female to enter the world of lead guitarist in an aggressive way. There are so few that do. There are a lot of females that do it, but few of them are taking it to you and being aggressive with it. I think that goes against female nature, one, and I think it stirs up the social order on a visceral level.
You’re messing with some preconceived notions people may have. I don’t see myself as approaching things as a female guitar player. That helps me eliminate the gender line for myself. It’s like, if I don’t make it an issue, it’s a little easier for other people not to make it an issue.
Another thing is that people assume that there’s a little corral all female guitar players are in and that I’m just comparing myself to these other few that have been around. I don’t compare myself with any other female guitar players. All my favorite guitar players are men. I see any reason why any person, female or male, would feel that they only need to have female heroes. It doesn’t work like that for me. It didn’t work that way when I picked up a guitar in the first place. I didn’t just listen to females. The only female I listened to was Bonnie Raitt, who is a legend, and I didn’t listen to just her guitar playing.
My guitar heroes are all men. I’m playing on a different field. That’s where I put my measuring stick, I guess.
CP: Let’s talk about your influences. You do multiple Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute shows every year and are often compared to him. Who are some of your other influences, as far as the guitar is concerned?
LM: Freddie King was a big influence. Carlos Santana was also a huge influence, too. I love the diversity of Eric Clapton’s music. He did different types of albums that reached different people. I like that blues rock guitar of the ’70s, people like Alvin Lee. These guys are very aggressive players.
Stevie Ray Vaughn came along later. I had already been influenced by many other people. When he came along, he was one of those people who changed the instrument for other players. Jimi Hendrix did that, and I would say it didn’t happen again until Stevie Ray Vaughn, who was influenced by Hendrix.
He changed the way people played blues guitar. There’s a delineation where it’s like, “OK, the Stevie Ray Vaughn Period begins here.” I think some blues purists resent that. They don’t like the rocked-up blues thing, but it has a broader appeal than traditional blues does. I think it crosses over a little more. Rock stations play Stevie Ray Vaughn, and that helped introduce more people to blues. He was bringing it to the masses in a way I really appreciated.
When people tell me that, that they didn’t like the blues until they heard me, is a huge compliment. It’s like, “Wow, if this helped somebody to consider this genre differently so they’re more open, that’s great.”
CP: Recently you had a career milestone when Delaney Guitars started making a signature model guitar for you and you’re one of their endorsed artists. Do accolades like that from the music community have any affect on your perception of yourself as a musician?
LM: That particular one does. There are some accolades that mean more than others because they’re more substantive than just someone praising you for something. Recognition of this type, which is a guitar company building you a custom guitar, is like, “Wow. OK, I’m doing something right.” (Laughs.)
Fortunately, I like music enough to keep doing it, no matter what happens. When these things do happen, it’s validating, to some degree. When I was booked as a headliner at Riverbend, that was a big deal. The Georgia Music Hall of Fame is a big deal to be asked to perform there. Now, they’re featuring me in Georgia Music Magazine next month.
These are things that mean something is going right rather than just purely superficicial recognition because, “Oh, you do something that draws attention to yourself, and we like that.” It’s like, “We like your work. We like your music. We like what you’re doing.” That means more to me.
CP: Your live album released earlier this year. Are you thinking ahead to the next project already?
LM: Oh yeah, I have a lot of music. (Laughs.) I want to do another original album this year. I wanted to do one last year, and what ended up happening is that the live album was a bit of a detour. That’s just the way it happened. This year, the plan is to focus on the original album I had envisioned for last year. to work on the album .
CP: Any ideas for a name or release date?
LM: Names are just kind of floating right now until I decide on the final songs. The album will tell me what it’s going to be. As it develops, it will develop a personality. It’s almost like a child being born. It will have its own life. The less I try to affect it and make it and be contrived about it, the better.
I’d like to have it out by the summer. Finance obviously has a part to play with that as well as the songs coming together in a way that’s going to make a good album. I won’t just put out an album of 10 songs slapped together. I could do that. I could put out an album a year if I did that, but it wouldn’t have any meaning to me.
CP: If you could put together a dream jam session with any artist, past or present, who would you invite?
LM: I would say Janice Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King and Carlos Santana. That would be the biggest, and I always want the biggest. (Laughs.)