Blues musician Scott Holt learned his skills from the best – inspired by the music of Jimi Hendrix and mentored by legendary blues artist Buddy Guy.
For more than 10 years, Holt, a Tennessee native, was a guitarist for Guy, a blues pioneer who Rolling Stone ranked among the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”
Holt and his band will perform at Little Willie’s Saturday night at 9:30. The cover charge will be $5.
Holt said he always has a lot of fun playing at Little Willie’s, where he and his band have performed a few times.
“I like it because it’s small enough that it’s kind of intimate and you can see people, but it’s big enough because we’re kind of loud,” he said.
The shows tend to attract an older crowd, said Bill Lloyd, owner of Little Willie’s, adding that he would like to see more college students come out to see the blues artists they regularly host.
“For some reason [college students] haven’t been coming out to see the blues too much,” he said. “I don’t know how much awareness they have about the blues or whether the music has been available here in Tuscaloosa.”
Holt said it’s hard for him to differentiate whether the audience is a college crowd or not.
“To me, it’s just people and you’re playing for them, and as an entertainer your job is to make them happy,” he said. “You do it no matter who you’re in front of.”
The group will play a number of original songs, many from their newest album, “Kudzu,” a title derived from the plant that often dominates Southern landscapes.
“We’ve been playing these songs live and getting a good response,” Holt said. “It’ll be the first time we play these songs [at Little Willie’s], so I’m excited to see the reaction of the crowd.”
Aside from playing “every blues song you can imagine,” the group sometimes plays covers of other musicians as well, from The Black Keys to Earth, Wind and Fire to Jimi Hendrix, though they don’t plan in advance exactly what they will play at a given show, Holt said.
“It goes by the feeling of the night and whichever audience we’re playing for,” Holt said. “It just depends on what it takes to get them moving.”
Lloyd said the group puts on a tremendous show every time they come to Tuscaloosa.
“It’s a real good opportunity to see a real pro play,” he said. “It’s not just straight up Chicago blues. It’s more of a rockin’ blues that he’s developed into.”
Holt said the primary thing the group has to offer is “a really stellar band.”
“I’ve got some really good musicians playing with me,” he said. “It’s real music played by real musicians. Come ready to have a good time; that’s what we’re coming for.”
For more information, visit scottholt.com.
