Fred Kinbom

Bio:

One mild evening in the summer of 2005, Fred was onboard a Brighton bus en route to rehearsal with his old band. An elderly gentleman (who smelt gently of drink) asked him about the instrument cases he was carrying - "What kinda guitars are them?" Fred explained that it was one acoustic and one electric guitar, and the old man got very enthusiastic and excited. It was hard for Fred – a native of Sweden – to understand his accent as the alcohol had slurred his speech somewhat, but he was definitely talking about something he liked a lot. "Do you know?!" he asked, and when he saw that Fred didn't he proceeded to swing his left hand repeatedly from left to right, right to left, across his lap. The word "Hawaii" could be heard in the mixture of speech and musical sound effects. The old man was trying to tell Fred how much he liked the Hawaiian steel guitar, or, lap steel.

This chance meeting led Fred to sell one of his regular guitars and buying an old National New Yorker electric lap steel on eBay. The first efforts were tentative, but when an acoustic lap steel – a 1930s Oahu student model – was acquired for $81 a few months later, Fred got firmly hooked on the instrument.

A year or so later, Fred started performing in public playing his lap steels – now on a Weissenborn-style hollowneck acoustic. Drawing on influences from his Scandinavian roots as well as music from various parts of the world - Eastern Europe, South and North America, Africa - his very personal brand of music and approach to the instrument, along with his strong sense of melody, has won him many fans across the globe. People often comment that it's refreshing to hear lap steel music that is "not the usual slide stuff". "Soulful" and "unique" are other words uttered more than once by listeners, and Fred being mentioned in the book Slide Rules (about slide guitar tunings) alongside lap steel pioneers and legends is a great acknowledgment that he has brought something new to the slide guitar table.

Fred plays mainly solo performances of his own compositions, but has also started playing with other artists on both acoustic and electric lap steel every once in a while – a highlight so far being sitting in with the great New York-based band Hazmat Modine in concert in Germany.

Fred's first full-length lap sliding album, "Hedgehogs & Elephants", is out now - available from CD Baby, iTunes and fredkinbom.com!

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Member Since:

June 29, 2006

Members:

Fred Kinbom - acoustic and electric lap steel guitars, guitars and vocals. Also appearing with Jim Mortimore on double bass and Sam Walker on percussion, steel drum and backing vocals.

Influences:

Great music of all kinds: Cornelis Vreeswijk, Boubacar Traoré, Jan Johansson, Mestre Ambrósio, Hazmat Modine, Serge Gainsbourg, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, Eastern European gypsy music - and lots, lots more! As far as lap steel guitarists go, Bob Brozman, Tom Doughty, Don Rooke, Debashish Bhattacharya, Steinar Gregersen and my friend Paolo Conti are some whose playing I've found very inspiring so far.

Sounds Like:

Record Label:

Slide Planet / I Like Records