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guys. Also, it was easier at the time for me to play solo. That's one of the reasons I started getting
into more the old blues stuff because it was pretty much impossible for me to put a band together
where I was living. There was about 4000 people, and so that's when I started playing acoustic
guitar and learning the harmonica. I was about maybe 17-18 years old.
BiTS: I think you play a number of other instruments besides guitar and harmonica. What else
are they?
LB: Well, I played the banjo a little bit – 5-string banjo. But yes, the bass, I started on the bass,
actually. Yes, started learning the trumpet, but actually, my main instrument is the guitar and
harmonica as well. More guitar than
harmonica, I would say.
BiTS: It was quite a brave move of
you to make a move all the way to
Scotland. Why did you choose to do
that?
LB: Well, actually, I travelled quite
a lot before I stopped in Scotland
before the pandemic. In the
beginning, when I started playing,
most of my life I played on the street.
So that was my main income, let's
say, and then I spent some time
travelling in South America and
Australia as well. My partner, she
plays the washboard, and we
travelled together a lot. She's from
Australia. So we travelled to
Australia, New Zealand, the US, and
then Europe. A lot of back and forth.
The first time I came to the UK, I was
about 19. It wasn't let’s go to
Edinburgh. Actually, we were in. Europe, when we decided to buy a ticket just because the visa
was about to expire in Europe, so we had to move somewhere. So, okay, let's go to the UK. It
wasn't really like I have a dream to go to Scotland. I didn't even know where Scotland was,
actually [laughing]. I think oh, so cool. Let's go, let's see Edinburgh in Scotland. And yes, with the
pandemic as well, we thought about going back to Australia, but then it didn’t work because of
the restrictions and all that. So we worked out a visa here in the UK, and so it was sort of planned,
but it wasn't really planned like really far in advance. It was a bit sort of by accident, let's say.
BiTS: Tell me about making the album in, of all places, Mississippi itself. How did that come
about?
LB: Oh, yes. Probably all the blues musicians have the dream of recording something in the US,
especially in Mississippi or Chicago, those main blues cities. So that was when I wanted to do
some recording and the opportunity came up. I was playing the Juke Joint Festival in 2018, and
one of the venues that I played at, the Shack Up Inn, the guy offered to record the live set. That
was perfect because I was looking for a studio, somewhere to record and this opportunity came
up, and at that time, I was working on some of my original stuff and I had about eight songs that
I composed mainly during the time I was in the US, and sometimes travelling as well. I would