When listening to Tommy Shannon, former SRV bassist, can you hear the influences in his style. If so, who do you feel are his influences - bass players?
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Tommy Shannon
- Thread starter crios
- Start date
Willie Weeks was as least one influence. Here's a quote from Tommy:
"To me Willie Weeks is the very epitome of bass players. He’s a bass player that can play as little as he wants or as much as he wants without ever interfering in the groove. If you listen to the “Donny Hathaway Live” (Atlantic, 1972) record, which is probably one of the top five of my favorite records ever, he plays a lot but it all fits. Him and Freddie White the drummer are a great rhythm section. And I met Willie back in about 1966, we were playing in this club together in Dallas. He was playing in this band called Les Watson and the Panthers, an all black soul band and they’d play a set and then our band called The New Breed would play a set (all white guys). And I was so knocked out by him I used to just sit there and watch the whole set just staring at him. And we became pretty good friends and we still talk to each other and I have nothing but the greatest respect for him."
And some more:
"Yeah, Willie Weeks was my main influence though I can’t really say that we actually had the same style, but if you listen to some of the records I’ve made I do play some stuff that you can tell comes from Willie Weeks’ school of bass playing so to speak. There’s a lot of great bass players that influenced me, one was James Jamerson. He was the very first bass player to step out and do what he did. He brought a whole new revolution to bass playing. I love James Jamerson, I love Larry Graham, I love Leland Sklar, I love Jaco, there’s so many of them that I really like a lot and I love to go see really good bass players, I love doing that. I like Roscoe Beck. Also a bass player I really love is Johnny B. Gayden, he was Albert Collins bass player – he’s a great bass player."
One of my favorites. He did have his own style. I wonder what he thought of fellow Texan Keith Fergusons bass playing.
I definitely hear the strong roots of Texas style blues in his playing. Most people know him for his work with SRV. And in Double Trouble he was a kind of anchor player, which allowed Stevie to do his thing with a good base of harmonic and rhythmic support. And you should also take into account that he's kind of a veteran player - he came up playing with Johnny Winter before he ever played with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Someone like Dusty Hill is a contemporary of Tommy's, and I hear similarities between Tommy and Dusty's playing on the early ZZ Top records. I also hear those roots of boogie woogie, Chicago blues and early rock & roll (Jerry Lee Lewis comes to mind) in his style.
As for the players he cited in that article? I think he definitely had an appreciation for those players. And I would say that the Willie Weeks thing is spot on, but with the caveat that when Willie is playing that style (like when he's playing with Eric Clapton) I get where Tommy is coming from. But it's situational, because I've heard Willie go pretty out there with some of his gigs and recordings.
As for the players he cited in that article? I think he definitely had an appreciation for those players. And I would say that the Willie Weeks thing is spot on, but with the caveat that when Willie is playing that style (like when he's playing with Eric Clapton) I get where Tommy is coming from. But it's situational, because I've heard Willie go pretty out there with some of his gigs and recordings.
