Page 30 - BiTS_06_JUNE_2023

The BiTS Interview: Lone Bear

Sandino (Dino) Borges Leitão, is a blues musician from Brazil. He is now
based in Scotland, and plays Early Blues and Country Ragtime music on

resonator guitar, banjo, blues harp and kazoo.

His repertoire includes classics ranging from the '20s to the '60s as well
as his own compositions, which showcase his unique fingerpicking and

bottleneck slide technique.

The multi-instrumentalist has toured in 18 countries across 5 continents

throughout his professional music career spanning the past ten years.
Lone Bear has performed at countless venues, recording five albums and

a live DVD produced in Brazil, selling more than 10,000 CDs worldwide.

Ian McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone.

BiTS: Well, let's make a start shall we? Tell me something about your background. What actually
brought you to Edinburgh? Why did you choose Edinburgh?

LB: Well, that's a good
question. I actually was
travelling with my partner in
Europe. Then after Europe, we

just came to the UK, and
Edinburgh was the first place,
and after we travelled a little bit
in the UK and England, we just
thought the best place was
Edinburgh. So we just came
back to Edinburgh and settled
down here. I mean, the music
scene, there's a lot of pubs and
the music scene here for the
blues, so I felt that there's a lot
of potential to be here, to live
here and make a living and play
music. So that was the main
reason.

BiTS: Let's go back to the
beginning. How did you first
discover the blues? How did
that come into your life?

LB: Before I started playing blues, I used to play bass guitar in a rock band. And then from there,
after the rock band just broke up, I started getting into rock and roll music, then from rock and
roll, you know, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and then from those guys, I discovered the blues