Eddie 9V has a whole lot coming to you on his eclectic fifth studio full-length, Down Here, and the vibe is downright electric.
Though he’s an Atlanta-raised six-stringer who began self-producing music when he was a teenager, he linked up with Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound studios to help capture the raw and wide-smilin’ sound of his new album.
Eddie walks the ledge with exuberantly reckless vibrato on lead-off track Whole Lot Coming for You, and on Blowin’ Up, he becomes part of a three-headed hydra of boogie-rocked goodness during a back-to-back-to-back solo section with Marcus King and Dustin McCook. But he also brings daiquiri-sweet falsetto crooning to a Southern soul cover of KC and the Sunshine Band’s Rock Your Baby, and drawls laissez-faire wisdom into the sunset-strummin’ It Don’t Bother Me.
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Just before slapping a bunch of chicken thighs onto the grill for a family cookout at his new home in Greenville, South Carolina, Eddie 9V served up some thoughts on meaty tones, greasy guitar heroes, and more.
What was your first guitar and how did you get it?
I don’t know what brand it was, but it was tiny, and it had a speaker in it – it was just one of those old Japanese knockoffs from the Seventies. I was 6; I wish I still had it. It’d probably be a great-sounding blues guitar, because you could probably distort the speaker.
What was in your teenage guitar rig, and what did you love or hate about it?
I had a Samick guitar, and I tried to relic it, which is a horrible idea when you’re 14. It looked like somebody took a hacksaw to it. But I got my first good rig when I was 14. My dad sold his Honda 450 motorcycle and we got a Fender Blues Deluxe and a Highway One Strat, which I still use today.
I love that guitar – it’s amazing. I traded the amp. I’m not a big fan of the Blues Deluxe. They’re too quick. They don’t have any sag, like a good Fender two-band.
What’s a piece of gear you own that might surprise people?
I just own a lot of old shit, like Wurlitzers. I’m into old mics. My favorite amp that I have, which I’m debating on selling, is a brownface ‘61 Fender Concert. If I sell it, I’ll get some good money for it, but I’ll be kicking my ass in 20 years when they’re [worth] $30,000.
What’s your number one tone tip?
Turn the amp all the way up, and turn your guitar volume down. You’re gonna get better tone that way.
How did you get your first break in music?
Man, I was doing a lot of dumb gigs for a long time… There’s a guy named Tinsley Ellis, a blues cat from the Eighties and Nineties… I sent him my first demo, and he got me a booking agent, which got me on the road.
Then the booking agent got me the management, and then the management got me the label. Luck and hard work meet at the crossroads, but I owe all my success to Tinsley Ellis.
What is the most glorious guitar moment on your new album, Down Here?
One of the most important things to me about this record was that I got to use Sean Costello’s 1953 goldtop. He was an Atlanta blues musician, and he was my idol as a kid growing up. He was absolutely wonderful.
He died when he was 28, and I never got to meet him. Mat Koehler at Gibson ended up buying it – he was a good buddy of Sean’s – so Gibson lends it out to people who want to play it. So, the moment was [when] I was playing that guitar straight into a tweed Champ.
Marcus King had his recently acquired ‘59 Les Paul, an MK Burst. We were in the room for A Whole Lot Coming for You, lookin’ at each other like, ‘Holy shit, is this really happening?’
Tell us about a time you had an argument over tone or gear choices. Did that ever happen with Dan?
They like to use small amps that are turned up, but I need a really big amp. We didn’t have any qualms, but there was one time I wanted to bring this amp into the room and dime it, where it bleeds into the other mics. Everybody was like, “Why?” But everyone loved the sound after I got done with it. But yeah… me and Dan haven’t argued yet!
What was your worst onstage moment?
This was one time in Athens, Georgia… I had just bought new shoes, and they were real slick, but I came out and totally slipped on a cable and busted my ass. I almost broke a headstock. That was embarrassing. And there was one show in New Orleans where I ran out and didn’t have my guitar with me.
The band was playing and everything, [so] I went back to the green room, but I didn’t know the code [to get back in]. The whole venue could see me looking like an idiot. That was pretty funny.
You can only take a Strat or a Les Paul to a gig. Which are you choosing and why?
I would almost always play a Les Paul, because you’re gonna have the most meat – you’re gonna be louder; you’re gonna have more gain in your guitar.
I’ve made the mistake of showing up to a jam with a Strat, and you sound like you’re just plinking, you know? Strats are really hard to make sound fat, especially if you’re not with your own rig. I’d always pick a Les Paul.
If you could magically absorb the playing skills of one famous guitarist – and play like that person for a year or so – who would it be and why?
Probably Albert King, because there’s nobody nastier than Albert King. Freddie King is like the brisket, B.B. King is the filet mignon, and frickin’ Albert King is just a damn ham-hock. He is greasy and nasty. I’m not trying to toot horns here, but Joe Bonamassa did a video basically saying there are only a few guitar players that can do the Albert King bends correctly, and he said my name. I was super honored.
Who is the guitarist you’d most love to jam with or collaborate with next?
John Mayer is like our generation’s Eric Clapton. That would be awesome.
