On album number four, Empty Chairs, Canadian singer and guitarist Spencer Mackenzie is dialling up the intensity and embracing more of an up-tempo, darker shade of blue.
But there’s still plenty of soul encased within the new music, which sees him experimenting with dynamic nuances and sounding more sonically versatile than ever.
And then there’s his rousing cover of Rory Gallagher’s Don’t Know Where I’m Going, transforming a lesser-known 1971 acoustic cut by the Irish great into a big-band extravaganza.
That’s Progress
Now in his mid-20s, Spencer is starting to branch out from the classic blues that made him fall in love with music in the first place.
“The thing that’s cool about this album is that there are chord progressions I’ve never used before, including some chromatic movements and ideas that stem from outside of the blues,” he explains.
“I grew up listening to the greats like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King, but this album is more of a hybrid between blues and rock. The songs are a bit grittier and more in-your-face, which resulted in more energetic guitar playing.
“One thing I’ve learned recently is the amount of subtlety between big solos and shorter verse leads. Don’t use the ginormous lead sound one minute into the song. It’s better to go with a light boost and save the bigger tones for later.”
Embrace The New
Modern players like Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr. and Marcus King have also shown Spencer how the blues has evolved with the times.
“What I love about Gary in particular is how he brings traditional playing into the modern age,” says Spencer. “I love the amount of freedom in his solos, he just goes off because his leads are open-ended. Leads should also be intentional, otherwise people can get bored.
“One of my favourites is Derek Trucks’ solo on Midnight In Harlem from the first Tedeschi Trucks Band live album [Everybody’s Talkin’, 2012]. It goes on for quite a while, but every second counts. It would be easy for a player to get lost in a situation like that, but Derek never has that problem.”
Electric Upgrade
There are many Rory Gallagher songs Spencer could have covered, but he ended up choosing Don’t Know Where I’m Going because of its relative obscurity.
“I didn’t know much about Rory until I went to music college,” he says. “I just fell in love with his style right away, especially as I grew up as a Strat guy.
“I chose this song because it’s an acoustic thumb and plucking thing from his second album [Deuce, 1971] that isn’t as well known as classics like Bad Penny or I Fall Apart. I love how stripped-down it is – there’s almost this old-timey Robert Johnson feel. Then I chose to turn the song on its head and record an electric version with more intensity and soloing.”
Different Shades of Blue
This latest release also sees Spencer switching from his ES-335 to a Les Paul.
“I didn’t want to take my 335 on a plane,” he says, explaining how he “needed something with humbuckers” and stumbled upon a secondhand ’60s Standard Iced Tea Burst Les Paul.
“I loved the finish and thinner neck, though it didn’t feel too thin like an SG. It was 12 hours away from where I live, that’s part of the struggle of being left-handed. I brought an amp, played it in a parking lot and brought it home. It ended up becoming my number one because of its versatility.
“The difference from nine to 10 on the volume is huge. I sometimes use that instead of gain-staging pedals. You can control a lot of sound through the guitar, dialling down the lead tone to find the rhythm tone.”
Spencer Mackenzie on how he dials in his sound
Like a lot of blues guitarists, Spencer doesn’t need a great deal in terms of pedals.
“I just want a few that work well with my Vox AC30,” he says. “I use a Boss ES-5 to switch through levels of gain.
“The first patch is just my Fender Engager Boost, the second one is my Analog Man Prince Of Tone, and the third is both of them together. Number four is my Fulltone OCD, and the final setting is the OCD with my Prince of Tone for a rip-your-face-off sound.”
- Empty Chairs is out now via Gypsy Soul.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist . Subscribe and save .
