THERE'S a feeling Kirk Fletcher is always chasing as a blues guitarist.
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When he becomes one with the fretboard. When it feels as if the guitar is actually playing him, controlling and inspiring him into an almost trance-like state of euphoria.
"I try always to get to that place," Fletcher says from his home in Switzerland, where he moved to from his native Los Angeles three years ago to follow love.
"It's a combination of years of doing it and having the technique to get inside and know the instrument good enough. It's a combination of all those things. I don't think it's one thing.
"I definitely do try to get to that place where I can have fun. I call it having fun. You don't fight it."
Fletcher's ability to "have fun" with a guitar has attracted some esteemed admirers over the years.
Charlie Musselwhite invited Fletcher to collaborate with him in the early 2000s, which handed the 44-year-old his first big break and after striking up a friendship with Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, he spent four years as the legendary Texas blues band's lead guitarist.
In recent years Fletcher has played in Joe Bonamassa's band.
"Kim Wilson is one of the greatest frontmen in the business," Fletcher says. "I learnt how to try and keep that calm, assured, professional and spur-of-the-moment thing from years of watching him do it.
"Charlie [Musselwhite] is just a legend. He's a story-teller and he understands how to work the story in and he gave me the platform to really be myself.
"Then Joe Bonamassa is just my friend. It's really cool to see him do his thing and how he does it."
Fletcher is no rookie on the blues scene. He's been performing constantly since the '90s after first picking up the guitar aged eight and playing in his father's Pentecostal church.
However, songwriting remained an unexplored art form of music. His early albums I'm Here & I'm Gone (1999), Shades of Blue (2003) and My Turn (2010) featured predominantly covers, but on 2018's Hold On Fletcher challenged himself to write the entire record and it produced arguably the greatest result of his career.
Hold On earned a nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2019 Blues Music Awards in Memphis, and most importantly, proved to Fletcher he was a capable songwriter.
"I came to songwriting pretty late and I've only been writing songs for the last few years," he says.
"So I just wanted to prove to myself that I could actually do a whole album and write all the songs and arrange all the music.
"It is what I call my first real solo record."
Much of Hold On's appeal stems from Fletcher's ability to blend blues, soul and gospel, an obvious talent ingrained from his upbringing playing to his father's congregation.
"I think those influences are there a lot on the record," he says. "Because it was just me writing songs.
"To me blues, soul, gospel are all cut from the same cloth."
Catch Kirk Fletcher and his band at The Factory, Sydney (February 6); Lizotte's, Newcastle (February 7); The Abbey, Canberra (February 8) and Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool (February 13).
Josh Leeson
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
