Michael Messer

Michael Messer is a British slide guitarist and singer, born in Middlesex in 1956. He plays blues with a style that draws on the full history of the genre while remaining distinct and contemporary. His work also makes use of turntables, which adds a further layer to the band’s sound.

Early life and influences

He grows up playing rock music with his two brothers and in local bands. In his early twenties he spends time in Nashville, where he hears and meets country artists including Roy Acuff, Hank Snow and Johnny Cash in their own setting. Back in England in the late 1970s, he focuses on Mississippi Delta blues slide guitar and buys his first National steel guitar in 1979.

Career

Messer begins playing blues gigs as a solo artist and with local bands in the early 1980s. In 1983 he meets Ed Genis, and the two start a long-running musical partnership. That year he also begins regular gigs with British blues singer Mike Cooper, which brings him to wider attention on the folk and blues circuit. In 1984, Cooper asks him to play slide guitar on The Continuous Preaching Blues, an album recorded with Ian Anderson.

The Michael Messer Band forms in 1985. Its first album, Diving Duck, appears in 1987 and receives strong reviews. In 1989 Messer produces and plays on Ted Hawkins’s I Love You Too, later reissued as Nowhere to Run. He also works with S.E. Rogie, producing tracks for New Sounds of S.E. Rogie.

Albums and collaborations

Messer’s second album, Slidedance, is released in 1990. He is voted Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year at the BBC Awards the following year. In 1993 he releases the trio album Rhythm Oil with songwriter Terry Clarke and Texas guitarist Jesse “Guitar” Taylor. The sleeve notes are written by Johnny Cash.

Moonbeat follows in 1995 and combines world music and blues. It also features DJ Louie Genis scratching old blues vinyl. In 1999 Messer records in Alberta with Canadian guitarist and songwriter Doug Cox. A song from those sessions, “Cold When I’m Dead,” appears in Terry Gilliam’s film Tideland.

In 2001 he releases King Guitar, a compilation of sixteen tracks from his back catalogue. It reaches number one in the US Living Blues chart and is the most played album on US college radio in May 2001. Second Mind follows in 2002 and features his regular band, Ruby Turner on backing vocals, and DJ Louie Genis across the whole record. The album wins Best Blues Guitar Album at the 2003 International Guitar Federation awards.

Messer signs to Cooking Vinyl in 2005 and releases Lucky Charms in 2006. The album features ten original songs and has a more acoustic feel than Second Mind. The line-up includes Louie Genis, Ed Genis, Richard Causon, Jerry Soffe and Simon Price. In 2007 Soyuz Music in Russia releases Lucky Charms, Second Mind and King Guitar. That same year he also releases National Debt’s From the Horse’s Mouth.

Performances and projects

In November 2007 Messer and BJ Cole debut their steel and slide guitar show, That Sliding Sound, at the International Festival of Guitar in Lancashire. He also appears in 2007 as one of three featured slide guitarists at Cognac Blues Passions in France, alongside the Campbell Brothers and Debashish Bhattacharya. Later that year he performs with Ed Genis at the Issoudun Guitar Festival in France.

In 2008 he and Ed Genis play a run of UK tour dates, and their duo partnership reaches twenty-five years. He also launches his own range of resonator guitars. Newtone Guitar Strings and National Reso-Phonic Guitars produce a Michael Messer brand made specifically for the National steel guitar.

Recognition

Messer is described in the Virgin Encyclopaedia of the Blues alongside other blues figures who have influenced his playing. He is also listed by the American magazine Spirit among the greatest slide guitarists, alongside Duane Allman and Ry Cooder.