Lindsay Ell Featured on Rock Site Loudwire’s ‘Gear Factor’
Lindsay Ell's guitar skills are starting to earn her recognition outside of country music. Rock website Loudwire recently featured the "Criminal" singer and 2018 Taste of Country RISER in an episode of Gear Factor, hosted by the Music Experience's Squiggy.
The video was filmed during Hometown Rising in Louisville, Ky., earlier this month. Ell sat down to talk about her guitar raising, revealing that in addition to Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive she toured with blues great Buddy Guy.
"Randy became like another dad to me growing up," she shares. "So there would be all of these jazz chords up and down the neck and I’d just sit there when I was 13, like, ‘Randy, what is that? I want to learn this stuff.’ So he was the guy that got me playing a lot of jazz and blues growing up."
The 30-year-old Canadian gets a chance to jam a few of her favorite guitar riffs during the interview, doing so on one of her signature painted guitars. With the success of her duet with Brantley Gilbert more and more country fans are learning about Ell but those who've seen her live are taken aback by her stage presence and guitar show. It's without precedent for a woman in country but not for a country musician in general.
"You take an artist like Keith Urban who plays very bluesy things in his country songs, you watch his show and it’s a rock, blues show with country songs. He’s so inventive," Ell says. "So after watching Keith play I was like, ‘Alright, I can figure this out. I can totally figure this out.'”
Ell is currently on tour with Gilbert. "What Happens in a Small Town" is a Top 10 single on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart. Loudwire is a sister site of Taste of Country.
Watch: Here Are Some of Lindsay Ell's Hottest Licks