Colin John plays tribute to Led Zeppelin on the sitar
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If you have ever wondered what Led Zeppelin's music might sound like played on a sitar, musician Colin John is about to demonstrate this feat, when he performs "The Sitar Remains the Same" show at Mulligan's on the Blue teamed with cajon percussionist Travis Rice.
John plays an electric Baby Sitar, which he featured on his album "Electric Lotus."
"I've always been a fan of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, and I started using the electric sitar on some sessions," John explains. "With my partner Long Tall Deb, we had done a tour of India in Nepal and written a song inspired by our travels. It was really screaming for an electric sitar, so I got one, and used it on the track 'Streets of Mumbai.' Then I started playing a lot of rock and pop and blue songs on it."
A versatile musician, his career includes backing legends like Hank Ballard, James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins and Clarence Gatemouth Brown at B.B. King's Beale Street club in Memphis. During a decade living in England, he performed with veteran musicians who had backed Eric Clapton and George Harrison, and Garry Brooker of Procol Harum fame, who played keyboards on his albums "Colin John & Friends" and "Live in the Spirit." His genre-defying guitar style was described by the British music magazine Mojo as, "ferociously entertaining funked-up R&B."
After opening for British blues legend John Mayall on a multi-island tour in 2001, he moved to Hawaii Island and studied Hawaiian steel guitar with Alan Akaka, and teamed with ukulele player Dagan Bernstein to form Da Braddahs Ho'analu.
While Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page never played sitar with the rock greats, he owned one and during an early trip to India, Ravi Shankar showed him how to tune the instrument.
Released in 2021, "Electric Lotus" ranged from covers of Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced," the Beatles' "Something" and the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction," to Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things" and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."
"That came about through my solo shows," he says. "A lot of people would come up to me and say, 'that electric sitar is so cool. You should make an album with familiar songs.' That was the genesis."
Looking forward to returning to Maui, he says, "I've got a whole evening's worth of Zepp material I can do. It will not be like a tribute per se. It's more of a reconstruction and an homage."
Aloha Growers presents "The Sitar Remains the Same" show at Mulligan's on the Blue on July 6 at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 for dinner. Admission is $20.