Earl Klugh – HuffPost 11.8.13

Jonnie Cohen: Do you have any advice for new artists?

Mike Ragogna: Hey, that’s MY question! [laughs]

Earl Klugh: Some people like jazz or blues or country. With me, I really try to embrace all of those styles and find something that I like out of all of them. When I first heard country music, I was like, “Oh, I don’t like this music.” But then I go to the record stores and I check out the albums and I buy a couple of things and almost every time, you find songs that you love. That’s what kept me moving on, trying to find more repertoires and more ways to play.

JC: So, one, you had your own sound that they liked, and then two, you also pushed yourself to learn other styles and other peoples’ sounds.

EK: Exactly.

JC: Are they both very important?

EK: They’re both equally as important as the other. That’s very definite.

MR: Earl, how does an artist keep growing, in your opinion? What are some actual fundamentals for an artist to keep growing?

EK: Well, for me, after a while I kind of knew what I liked, the type of music that I embraced. I’m very passionate about Brazilian music, and I did a lot of country stuff with Chet. On the CD I have up now, I did a song with Vince Gill. So I try to keep all of those things going on in my career because it’s very interesting. You never know who you’re going to meet and people that you can collaborate with.

MR: What practical things can someone like Jonnie do at this point his young music career?

EK: Gosh, I don’t really know. To me, it seems that there are so many new jazz guitar players and saxophone players, I think we could topple this boat with them, I’m telling you! And they’re all great! It’s really amazing. When I was a kid, there weren’t that many great players. We had Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie and Grover Washington. It’s all changed up so much.