Today we’d like to introduce you to Milo Sledge.
Hi Milo, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My dad started me on piano at the age of 6 doing the classical method for young learners. My teacher was a former vaudevillian. One day after my lesson she broke into the meanest, sexiest, scariest boogie woogie I have heard to date. She was all of 5 feet tall but to my young eyes, it looked like her arms were 8 feet long reaching both ends of the piano at once. Next was when I first heard Johnny Cash’s Boy Named Sue, I was blown away for the second time. The spirit of the song, his voice, and the lyrics “the mud, the blood and the beer” I thought was funny stuff. More than the Beetles, Credence Clearwater’s swamp sound was my fav. I did not know what blues was yet. Then I discovered Hendrix, The Doors, and I became a huge Rolling Stones fan which made me a huge Chuck Berry fan. I would struggle listening to the radio until one of these or someone playing blue notes came on. Then like for many Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Pride and Joy’s Texas boogie brought me full circle with my piano teacher’s fiery performance way back when. This whole time I had not played music myself since piano lessons that lasted about 5 years and guitar lessons for three months. SRV was the incentive to try the guitar. I delved into his influences by going to the library and I discovered a couple of listener-sponsored radio stations that had weekly blues programs. I would record them to use as my listening and learning music. I made a little headway on Pride and Joy as well as getting into the classic greats, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters.
I worked long hours on a farm and wasn’t expecting to join a band so I concentrated more on solo guys, the older more primitive the better. I got a harmonica rack and proceeded to struggle with self accompanying myself. But for actual playing, I came back up to the 1950s, early ’60s. I liked John Lee Hooker but preferred his early stuff with a backing band that followed his unorthadox changes versus in later years where there was more structure. Lightnin’ Hopkins was a good fit for my natural style of make it up as I go and I listened to few others for years. I worked at it pretty diligently for 2 or 3 years then other distractions came along. Mountain bikes were just coming out and I got into cycling, both on the road and mountain, and into the mountains in general. That consumed me for over ten years where I did not touch a guitar. When I took a break from bikes and mountains, I picked up a guitar and was pleasantly surprised that I had improved. My self-conscience was still at work during my absence. I bought a 1956 Silvertone acoustic archtop guitar that had been outfitted with a floating pickup at the neck and got a weekly solo gig at the Sans Souci, affectionately known as “The Sewer”. That lasted six months until the late nights and early mornings became a grind. I put it down again. Another ten years pass and I reach for the guitar again and as before, noticeable improvement. This time I joined my first band, playing a variety of styles. They were very encouraging and I was the defacto blues element in the band.
During this time my harp playing improved and almost started to sound like the real thing. Had to put music down for a year then went right back to Hard Times band. This time I ventured out to some of the jams around town, especially the Blues and Swing Jam at the former Amigo’s in Ventura, gained a lot of good experience there. This led to working with Francois “Catfish” Ellis, the host of the blues jam who introduced me to some great players, John Marx, Brad Strickland to name a couple. There I met Tom Buenger for what I thought a one-time show with Catfish and I as Tom was on leave from the Air Force. Shortly after that, I started my first band, The Bandoleros, and with TB Ledbetter’s help, we had some pretty heavy guests, Preston Smith, Randy Rich, and Ray Jaurique. A year later Tom became a civilian and we formed Tom & Milo Folk n Blues Duo. We performed together for five years all over Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. We had a weekly residency and a couple of monthly and bi-monthly. I started doing solo gigs and formed Milo Sledge Trio with Vance Beach on bass and Southside Richie Van der Wyk on drums. Capable of going blues-heavy, we also incorporated Johnny Cash and dabbled in eclectic stuff from the older pop, rock, R&B, and even jazz catalogues to be more palatable for the kind of gigs available. I did some duos with John Marx and Crooked Eye Tommy (Marsh) during this time. All this kept me very busy right up to the Covid shutdowns. I had just started to collaborate with Doc Ventura on a one-time delta blues-themed documentary-style show which we ended up having to live stream due to shutdowns. It went so well that we kept together as Delta By The Beach (DBTB) with Doc leading and with jazz drummer Eddie Layman.
As Milo Sledge Trio gigs started coming back, Doc and Eddie became the backline. DBTB went into recording mode releasing a single every month for a year with a mini concert video, oftentimes with a special guest, and producing our first album. We traveled to Clarksdale, Mississippi to play a festival and continue to record with our second album due out in early 2023. Other recent highlights include opening for well-known L.A. band The Delgado Brothers, Mexican guitar great Javier Batiz, and Woodstock headliners Canned Heat; sharing stages with the likes of RJ Mischo and Canned Heat’s Fito de la Parra are especially special moments. For most of my life I sat the guitar down for 10 years at a time, I’ve now celebrated 10 years of playing continuously. My piano teacher’s boogie woogie demonstration planted the seed a long time ago, took a while but it grew.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My dad who encouraged me to take piano lessons got me excited about it, but I was 6 years old and lacked the discipline. Then when I was 8 and my friends were outside playing and I’m inside practicing it got harder LOL. Practice was forced at best. Having plenty of other interests to distract me made it a nice thing to return to, like an old friend. Working long hours and starting a family early I wouldn’t call a struggle, but it definitely led me down a different path. Other than my early piano and school band horn training, being self-taught and accepting the fact that I wasn’t going to be a master with amazing skills I started to really enjoy it and would amaze myself as I progressed, stumbled onto something real musicians do, or it sounded like at least and developed something of a style of my own, interpretations of my influences.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have worked in agriculture my whole life. From the field doing manual labor, driving tractors and truck. I leaned toward mechanics, welding and fabrication. I had some great opportunities early on. I graduated from tractor driver to the mechanic/welder on the farm I was working at when I was 21. For the past 30 years I’ve been on the administrative side, still on a farm, still on the repair and maintenance side both for equipment and property and a whole bunch more. Very fortunate to be where I’m at. My loyalty is appreciated as much as I appreciate theirs.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Not that it matters what people think of me, but it does. If at all possible I want to leave a good footprint, a good taste in their mouth, whoever they are. It’s a whole lot easier to come and go when people are amicable and they welcome your presence, and in music I think it helps in getting a callback.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Delta By The Beach photos courtesy of Kala K. Layman https://www.facebook.com/kala.layman
