Amos Garett Interview
Amos Garrett is an American-Canadian musician, guitarist, singer, and composer based in High River, Alberta. Born in Detroit, he moved to Canada as a child and was raised in Montréal and Toronto. Garrett’s interest in jazz was first sparked by his father’s extensive music collection, and then by watching legendary jazz and blues musicians play at Montréal’s Esquire Club. Originally a trombone and piano player, Garrett soon switched to the guitar after hearing the new sound of “rock and roll” on the radio. After college, he was invited to tour and record with Ian and Sylvia Tyson’s band, Great Speckled Bird. It was then that he developed a new technique of bending more than one string at a time on his guitar to make it sound like a pedal-steel. This innovative style of playing set him apart as a guitarist who could handle blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and country. He gained further fame in 1974 with his inspired guitar solo on Maria Muldaur’s hit, “Midnight at the Oasis”. In a 1975 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page called Garrett one of his favourite American guitar players. After years of touring the United States as a “hired gun” guitarist, Garrett moved to Alberta in 1989 and signed with Edmonton-based label, Stony Plain Records. Today, he continues to record and release music, both as a solo artist and as part of several bands.
Career Highlights
Garrett has played guitar on recordings by more than 150 artists including, Anne Murray, Ian Tyson, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Butterfield, Jesse Winchester, Maria Muldaur, Bobby Charles, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris.
He is featured on Anne Murray’s chart-topping rendition of “Snowbird” from her 1969 album, This Is My Way (1969).
He has collaborated on albums such as: This Is My Way (1969) with Anne Murray, Great Speckled Bird (1970) with Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Hungry Chuck (1972), Maria Muldaur (1973), Paul Butterfield’s Better Days (1973) and It All Comes Back (1973), Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett (1978), and The Cold Club (1996). He also played trombone on Jerry Garcia’s second solo album, Compliments (1974).
Garrett has released several albums under Stony Plain Records, including his first solo album Go Cat Go (1980), Amosbehavin' (1981), The Return of the Formerly Brothers (1987), I Make My Home in My Shoes (1989), Live in Japan (1990), Third Man In (1992), Off the Floor Live! (1996) with the Eh Team, Amos Garrett’s Acoustic Album (2004), Get Way Back: A Tribute to Percy Mayfield (2008), Jazzblues (2013), and Guitar Heroes (2015).
Garrett won a JUNO Award in 1989 for “Best Roots/Traditional Album” for The Return of the Formerly Brothers. He was nominated again in 2005 for Amos Garrett's Acoustic Album, and in 2008 for Get Way Back: A Tribute to Percy Mayfield.
He has been the intermittent bandleader and a member of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s Festival House Band for several years, starting in 1990 and continuing until 2012.
He has authored several instructional books, albums, and videos on music and guitar, including the 2010 book, Amos Garrett—Stringbending: A Master Class.
Source: http://www.stonyplainrecords.com/Web/artist.asp?id=354