Guitar Man

Regarded widely as the “guitarist’s guitarist,” Pierre Bensusan released his debut album Près de Paris in 1975 when still a teenager. Over the past 35 years he has consolidated his position as one of the best acoustic players in the world. His output over the decades has varied from the highly experimental to more acoustic fare, as on his latest album Vividly. His highly intricate technique is influenced by jazz, bluegrass, African, Arabic, Irish and British music, combined with his own musical imagination and vision. Bensusan was voted ‘Best World Music Guitar Player in 2008’ by Guitar Player Magazine and his live shows continue to mesmerize audiences around the world.

“I like to take people into a musical world rather than into a guitar world,” he reflects, as he sets out on an extensive Irish tour. “I think that’s one of the secrets of how I play. The guitar should become transparent. In fact, I’m always trying to make it invisible.”
Algerian-born of Spanish and Moroccan heritage, Bensusan’s family moved to Paris when he was four and he grew up listening to the rock ‘n roll and pop music that was all around him. “We lived in a small apartment and my two sisters were always listening to the Beatles and the Stones and then later, Elton John, and Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Then I heard Joni Mitchell and I thought she had achieved a [guitar] sound that was so unique that it was almost like a different genre.”
He attended piano lessons for four years from the age of seven and later picked up a guitar. Completely self-taught he learned by listening to other guitar players and reading music books and tutors.
“It’s always a big challenge to play whatever instrument you chose,” he says. “It takes effort, energy and time and lots of practice. Some people lose themselves along the way because of the technical challenges. It’s not all about technical skills. Of course that’s a way to get to the music but after a while, you need to forget every scale and every chord you know and just play how you feel.”
He didn’t know it at the time but Joni Mitchell’s use of non-standard guitar tunings on many of her best known songs would become a key element in Bensusan’s own unique style. He is an exponent of the tuning known as DADGAD (his record label is called DADGAG Records). He changed over from using standard tuning after reading about it.
“I discovered that it was so easy to do – to tune the strings down and when I did it, I thought, ‘oh I like how that sounds’ and that’s exactly what happened I was just 13 or 14 at the time and it helped me to become much more motivated. I was playing a bit of ragtime and blues. Then I heard Pentangle with Berth Jansch and people like Davey Graham, who also used that tuning. I heard a bit of classical on guitar and some Irish music. Ry Cooder was another guitar player who became a hero of mine. It was the beginning of a long quest for me that continues to this day.”
His playing is a master class in dynamics and tone control with sophisticated, highly syncopated bass lines incorporated into his counterpoint arrangements. In the past he has utilised an array of gear and accessories in which to enhance and complement his playing but these days he prefers to keep it simple.
“In the early ‘80s I travelled with a lot of rig and I went the whole way into that world. I was starting to play with all kinds of sounds, different octaves, bass solos, overdrive, looping live on stage, using different EQ etc. It got completely out of hand and my sound checks were lasting two or three hours. By the time the sound check was over I was too tired to play the actual concert. One day I looked at all my machines and it was weakening my resolve to play. It was hard to give it up, almost like quitting smoking. Then I rediscovered my guitar again. I’m now more relaxed onstage. I’m happy to be there and I try to recreate myself every time. The audiences doesn’t need to know whether something is difficult to play or not.”
Over the years Bensusan has played and still uses various custom-made guitars but on the current tour he mainly plays the Pierre Bensusan Signature Guitar Model designed and built in Downpatrick Co. Down by renowned luthier George Lowden. “It gives me what I need which is almost a 3D sound and it has vivid colours and textures,” he says. “I use Wyre strings made in Canada – I usually get five or six concerts out of them without changing”
As for practice Bensusan says he plays all the time: “I always play when I feel like playing. It could be anytime, anywhere. To express my vision of the world I’m living in, this is the instrument that I’ve chosen. The music doesn’t care about how you feel. The music says ‘take me and throw me out there, if you can’.
“There are moments when I want to close the door and work out what’s coming out of my imagination. But being on tour is the opposite – it’s like being a sponge. You get this amazing energy coming from the people you meet, from being onstage, being on the road, in the car travelling from gig to gig.”

Pierre Bensusan tours Ireland in November with dates in Limerick (2) Cork (4) and Dublin (7) and Galway (8). For full schedule, see www.pierrebensusan.com