All Them Witches talk blues influences

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By ( Louder ) published

Guitarist Ben McLeod of Nashville rockers All Them Witches has the blues in his blood

All Them Witches guitarist Ben McLeod says the blues has always been his number one inspiration.

The Nashville rockers – who last month released a video for Open Passageways – draw influence from everything from prog to world music. But when it comes to guitar work, McLeod’s heart belongs to only one genre.

He tells Mipro: “Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman. Jerry Garcia is probably number one, just because of my dad being a big Dead Head and I grew up listening to Jerry Garcia all the time.

“Now, it’s probably more like Peter Green, Roy Buchanan – it’s always blues-based for me. As much as I love all kinds of music, the only guitar I’ve truly been passionate about is blues stuff.”

All Them Witches released their third album Dying Surfer Meets His Maker in February. It was recorded with engineer Mikey Allred in the Tennessee mountains.

McLeod adds: “We couldn’t have done it without the help of our friend Mikey Allred. He’s an amazing engineer and was willing to pick up his entire studio and drive two and a half hours to east Tennessee.

“That was a must for us – somebody who could engineer the album in a crazy location.”

The band are at the tail-end of a European tour before they return to North America in May.

ALL THEM WITCHES TOUR DATES 2016

Mar 11: Milan Lofi Club, Italy
Mar 13: Bezirk Ottakring Chelsea, Austria
May 01: Orlando Moonstone Music Festival, FL
May 03: Jackson Duling Hall, MS
May 04: Little Rock Stickyz Rock’N’Roll Chicken Shack, AR
May 05: Cleveland Hey Joe’s, MS
May 06: Oxford Proud Larry’s, MS
May 07: Birmingham The Syndicate Lounge, AL
May 10: Charlotte Visualite Theatre, NC
May 11: Charleston Pour House, SC
May 12: Columbia New Brookland Tavern, SC
May 13-15: Atlanta Shaky Knees Music Festival, GA
May 14: Knoxville Barley’s Taproom, TN
Jun 02-05: Nelsonville Music Festival, OH
Jul 15-17: Louisville Forecastle Festival, KY
Jul 22-24: Oro Medonte WayHome Festival, ON

High Hopes: All Them Witches – Psychedelic jams and wizard tales

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.