Snowy White is a member of a unique and select handful of British Blues guitarists whose sound and soul echo the original Chicago and Delta masters.
By DAVID BRINNSnowy White 311(photo credit: .)
When Snowy White was playing lead guitar for Roger Waters in 1990 at the Berlin shows marking the falling of the Berlin Wall, he was more than a little nervous – but it wasn’t about playing in front of such a large audience.“People ask ‘wasn’t it great to be standing on top of the wall playing your solo?’ And I answer that I was too busy looking down at my amp to make sure it was going to work up there to be concerned with anything else,” the 62-year-old consummate professional guitarist chuckled.The Berlin gig was just one of countless illustrious shows the rocker has performed in his decades as a Waters sideman, collaborator with seminal British guitarist Peter Green, the fifth ‘member’ of Wall-era Pink Floyd, and guitarist for British rockers Thin Lizzy.But at heart, White is a blues man. And his series of solo albums beginning in 1983 demonstrate that his heart is in the right place. For the last few years, White has been dividing his time touring with Waters (including his 2006 show here at Neve Shalom) and performing with his own Blues Project.“It’s really great to be playing with Roger and also to be doing my ownthing. In a way, it’s like two extremes,” he explained. “With the BluesProject, we play small, intimate places and I get to play what I want –it’s personally very satisfying. And with Roger, we’re playing the bigshows, with the jets and limos and all. The music is great, but it’svery fixed – the same show every night that can’t change because of thebacking tracks, the videos. It’s a different approach. So, I actuallythink I’m really lucky to have the best of both worlds.”Theblues world of Snowy White will be open to the public on Saturday night(March 27) when he performs at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv, with specialopening act Lazer Lloyd/Yood. The amiable guitarist sent a generalwarning to fans that he’s not going to be playing any material by PinkFloyd, Thin Lizzy, or even his one Top Ten hit, the 1983 ballad “Birdof Paradise,” which is a staple on Israeli radio shows.“People may still expect to hear it, but this is a blues show,” he said. Bring it on Snowy!