Lance Lopez Band

Lance Lopez is one very few guitarists who can say they started their career at age 14, when he began performing professionally with older, more seasoned musicians in New Orleans -- and understanding the elements of rock, blues, funk and R&B.

By the time he was 18, the Shreveport, Louisiana-born Lopez had toured with soul singer Johnnie Taylor and blues legend Lucky Peterson.

Since then, Lopez, who is based in Dallas, has released three studio albums, perhaps causing the biggest buzz with 2010's Salvation From Sundown, which was produced by Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana).

[[ Check out a stream of the new Lance Lopez album, Handmade Music, on GuitarWorld.com. ]]

His new album, Handmade Music, is an exploration into the roots of blues that pushes the genre into new territories. Lopez tips his hat to everyone from Mississippi Fred McDowell to Jimi Hendrix on Handmade Music, which Lopez calls a blues record with a major rock twist.

Guitar World sat down with Lopez to talk about the early days of his career, his gear and where he’s at today.

GUITAR WORLD: You’ve been a musician basically all your life. What were your original influences?

I started playing when I was 8, and I was in the country with my family when one of my uncles had guitars and amps and stuff in his home. And we would have big family get-togethers out in the country and they would play guitars. When someone put down a guitar, I would pick it up. I was just immediately attracted to it. There was just a connection. I don’t know where it came from, but I was just always attracted to guitars. I remember always passing by music stores when I was even younger and I was just so enthralled with guitars and drums in the windows of music shops.
Growing up, we had a lot of videos of Elvis Presley. My father was actually in the Army with Elvis, and they were really close in the Army and remained close. We had pictures in our home of my dad and Elvis together, and then I would see the guy on TV, so it was really cool. I was born about a month after he passed away. So it was a really big influence. My father really encouraged me to play once I had the interest to play. He really encouraged me. So by the time I was 12, I was serious about playing guitar.

When I was 10, I heard Jimi Hendrix for the first time. That totally changed my life. So that pretty much set the standard for me. I really looked for other guitars players from that era or who sounded like that. When I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan, I found that sound. I first saw Stevie Ray Vaughan when I was 12. And that was another big life-changing experience. That’s when I was like, “There it is, that’s the sound.” And then he was gone. But they really influenced me to not only study their styles, but also study the styles of the people who influenced them.

You’ve been a professional musician since you were about 14. How did you get to play in bars at such a young age?

When I was 14, we moved back in forth with my father between Texas and Louisiana. When I moved to New Orleans with my father, he began to really encourage me. It was like non-stop music in New Orleans in those days. I started going out with my dad to bars and stuff, and different bands would be playing. Next thing you know they would hire me; then people would hear about me playing and they would hire me. I was pretty grateful. I would play round the clock even. I’d go out and work from 5 in the afternoon to 5 in the morning because none of the bars closed. So what I would do is a happy hour gig from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. with one band, then I’d do a regular gig until 12 with another band, then do another gig from like 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. Then I’d go home and take a nap and then get up and go to school.

We moved around a lot. We moved to Florida, and I did the same thing. I would go to blues jams or open-mike jams and just join bands and start working. So that’s pretty much the better part of what my later junior high and high sc - Guitar World Magazine

Lance Lopez – Handmade Music (Made In Germany Music)
‘Handmade Music’ represents a major stepping stone for Lance Lopez – or, depending on how one looks at it, several stepping stones. Off the bat, I have to say that this is his best record. It is, at the very least, his most cohesive and focused effort. While there is plenty to love about everything Lopez has released to date – particularly 2004’s ‘Wall Of Soul’, which features legendary King’s X vocalist dUg Pinnick laying down some seriously soulful gospel wails on the 11-minutes-plus epic ‘Time’ and Lopez reviving the spirit of Jimi Hendrix as well as anyone else has ever done on tracks like the funkified ‘Shame The Devil’ and a stellar cover of Hendrix’ own ‘Spanish Castle Magic – ‘Handmade Music’ feels the most like a Lance Lopez album. Full stop. Lopez is a Texan, a guitar slinger, a bluesman, and a rocker. He can bring the funk. He can do country without sounding corny. But what he does best is summarized a few sentences back in this review: tear it up in the grand tradition of rockin’ Texas blues guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Billy F. Gibbons, and Chris Duarte. And that’s just what he does here. ‘Handmade Music’ features 12 tracks of tight, blazing blues-rock. Some of it – like ‘Letters’, for instance – is fiendishly nasty in that git-down-and-testify manner of the original blues legends, while some of it – like the Latin-flavored ‘Vaya Con Dios’ – feels more modernized yet older, much older, since the song structure and note choices owe more to classical music than to traditional blues. No matter what else he’s doing on any particular track here, there are a few things that Lopez manages to do consistently on every one of them. He proves that he can shred as well as, or better, than any guitar hero in the history of the instrument. He keeps his cool and makes the song his priority, never stepping on the other musicians or on his own vocals or rhythm parts with a misplaced solo. He revs the energy up to 10 within the first few measures of the ZZ Top inspired ‘Come Back Home’, which opens the album, and never lets it wane throughout the 56-plus minutes of music that follows – not on the ballad(ish) ‘Dream Away’, not on the oft-covered (but never as dizzyingly as this) Robert Johnson staple ‘Traveling Riverside Blues’, not anywhere, not for a second. On tracks like the Don Nix stomper ‘Black Cat Moan’ – famously covered by Beck Bogert & Appice on their 1973 debut, where the song’s proto-metal riff created a dividing line between fans who were happy with the then-standard version of electrified blues-rock and fans who were ready for something a little (and eventually, a lot) heavier – and the vintage-sounding blues jam ‘Lowdown Ways’, Lopez’ playing seems to take on a life of its own. It’s as if he is the first, the last, the only person ever to play a guitar – or at least the only person to play it like that. So, back to the stepping stones…. Lopez got sober in 2008, and his playing (and his singing) on ‘Handmade Music’ seems to be coming from a man reborn. He’s been releasing albums since 1998, but he’s never released anything like this before. No one has released anything quite like this before. The Impaler’s verdict: ‘Handmade Music’ represents Lance Lopez at the top of his game, and if this is just the start of his long-overdue ascendancy – just the first taste of what the reinvigorated Lopez is capable of – look out. The Impaler @impalerspeaks - The Impaler

"Lance Lopez got 3 standing ovations when he opened a show for me and I was among those standing..."B.B. KING .. .. - B.B. King

"One of my favs, the boy can make a guitar sing!" GREG MARTIN - KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS - Greg Martin- Kentucky Headhunters

"(after watching Lance perform) I know what it must have been like years ago when people were lucky enough to watch and hear the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others before they were widely known." EL DORADO NEWS-TIMES DAILY .. - El Dorado News- Times Daily

"Lance Lopez is one of the most authentic badass guitarists and blues Gods on the planet today" MUSICLOAD.COM - MusicLoad.com

"Lance is one of the great ones..." SMOKIN' JOE KUBEK - Smokin' Joe Kubek

"....I stood on the side of the stage (watching Lance play) on the verge of tears..." LEON HENDRIX (JIMI'S BROTHER) - Leon Hendrix

"...when we are onstage together I get chills because Lance reminds me of someone I used to play with along time ago..." BUDDY MILES - Buddy Miles

"A very exciting and intense Blues Guitarist..." JEFF BECK - Jeff Beck

"Texas has been know throughout the years to be the breeding ground for some of the baddest guitar players of all time...Lance is yet another one to carry on that Texas tradition..." BILLY F. GIBBONS - ZZ TOP - Billy F. Gibbons- ZZ Top