Page 63 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2025 Digital Edition

Meaza Joy. Photo by Dave Blake /Blues Alley Photo Harrell “Young Rell” Davenport. Photo by Paul Natkin

U.K. guitarist Rhys John Stygal is 17. He shares, “As a this playing style.” Andrew makes a point to visit Clarksdale
little kid I loved movies and soundtracks. I remember watching multiple times a year and Big A still invites him up.
Blues Brothers when I was about eight and fell in love with the Eighteen-year-old Lucian McDermott lives in Kinloch,
music.” Rhys started playing guitar when he was 12. Soon Taupo New Zealand and plays guitar, bass, drums, sings
after, he saw a YouTube clip of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing at and writes for his band Sonorous. “When I was very young
Austin City Limits. “Everything changed in that minute,” says my dad showed me a video clip of Stevie Ray Vaughan. I
Rhys. “I’ve been learning the blues ever since.” remember being blown away and all I wanted to do after
“Being from Mississippi, the blues is a huge part of the that was play a guitar. My dad taught me the pentatonic
culture,” says 19-year-old “Six String” Andrew Sullivan. scale and the basic chords, then my mum signed me up for
Andrew lives in the small coastal town of Vancleave, MS, and lessons with local Taupo legend Lance Murch, who taught me
plays guitar, mandolin, bass, drums, harmonica and sings. everything I know." Lance and his daughter Carol formed the
His dad took him to Clarksdale, MS, when he was five to listen band Sonorous with Lucian as lead, and the rest, says Lucian,
to music and see the historic blues sites. “I was absolutely “Is a work in progress.”
enamored by the music that I heard,” he says, “namely All of these young players have already written and
hearing Big A at Red’s juke joint. I had a little harmonica recorded, and many have their music available on various
with me and Big A let me jam with the band. When I picked streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music,
up the guitar at age six, I gravitated immediately towards Deezer and YouTube, plus Facebook, TikTok and Instagram,

“Six String” Andrew Sullivan. Photo by Gene Broome Kiersi Joli. Photo by Mark Rickard Photography

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