“I’d be in the middle of a tough show, look over at the side of the stage and there’s Nels Cline, one of the best guitar players ever to play rock and roll”: White Denim’s James Petralli has learned to roll with rock’s punches

James Petralli of the band White Denim performs at Teragram Ballroom on April 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

James Petralli, White Denim’s founding guitarist – and sole consistent member of a rotating cast of monster musicians – is a plunderphonic guitarist. He has a crate-digger’s lick bag, drawing as much from Zappa and psychedelic rock as he does from funk, jazz, soul and prog – before spitting it out all out in vital bursts of scrappy, frenetic energy.

“[As a teenager] I was in that place where I was really obsessed with the guitar, but I didn’t really have any interest in Yngwie. I liked Hendrix, but I didn’t have the attention to really develop technique,” says Petralli, which, frankly, tracks…