AJ Ghent [j-ent]

Nummer drie vandaag is de A.J. Ghent Band uit Atlanta. Zanger en slidegitarist A.J. Ghent bespeelt zijn slide bovenhands en hoe! Meteen is duidelijk dat hij een echte klasbak is gezegend met een schitterende stem. De band bestaat verder uit zijn vrouw die keyboard en bas speelt , zijn zus die percussie speelt en Javaras Dunn de drummer. Die vrouwen zorgen voor geweldige achtergrondzang met prachtige harmonieën. Er is goede interactie met het publiek en de sfeer ook daardoor prima.


De slowblues It Ain’t Easy is er een van de bovenste plank. Gospel zit er in Make Your Mind Up. A.J. Ghent heeft qua uiterlijk en stijl wel wat weg van Prince en laat het volgende nummer Purple Rain zijn, met een daverende gitaarsolo in het middenstuk en met fantastisch hoge vocale uithalen op het eind. Het funky Let’s Go Dancing is vrolijk en de conga’s versterken het ritme. Het publiek vindt het geweldig, ondergetekende ook. - Blues Magazine

AJ Ghent was born to the “sacred steel” tradition, where gospel music is accompanied and played instrumentally on lap and pedal steel guitars. AJ’s father, Aubrey Ghent, great uncle, Willie Eason, and grandfather, Henry Nelson, are all pioneers of the sacred steel sound. Though AJ was first exposed to steel guitar in church, over the years he has developed a potent take on Southern soul and R&B.

From his birthplace in Florida, Ghent moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he played in Top 40 bands. Later, he joined up with Col. Bruce Hampton, the legendary eccentric best known as the leader of such experimental groups as Aquarium Rescue Unit and Codetalkers. Along the way, Ghent developed a style of playing steel standing up, using an “over hand” slide technique.

Now he’s out in front of his own group, which features his wife MarLa and sister Tiffany on backing vocals, Gary Paulo on saxophone and guitar, bassist Seth Watters, and Will Groth on drums. Their CD/DVD Live at Terminal West fully captures all the raw energy of the band’s stage show.

In a brief respite from the road, Ghent spoke to Premier Guitar about his church beginnings (and endings), as well as the evolution of his unique playing style and the custom instruments that go along with it.

“My dad humbles me every now and then. I look at his rig and he’s plugging straight into a Twin Reverb.”
Did you start on regular guitar or steel?
I started on drums, but went straight from there to lap steel. I learned from listening to my father, grandfather, great-uncle, and from CDs.

Did you begin playing in church?
I played in my room for a long time. A member of the church we attended heard I’d started on lap steel and invited me to some of the programs. I played in church regularly for a couple of years. As I got a little older, they saw me emerging into a Hendrix style and kicked me out.

Your style of playing actually became an issue?
It wasn’t necessarily the playing. I always had a sense of freedom—I wanted to express myself. In that organization, clothing needed to be as simple as possible. I would come in with a big, red Afro and a suit. I was the Liberace of the church at the time.

Where did you play after church?
My first gig in the clubs was with a Top 40 band. I was playing R&B, rock, hip hop, pop music—anything that was on the radio. Playing everything helped groom me for my style today.


AJ GHENT'S GEAR
Guitars
Custom 8-string T-style steel guitar
Converted Fender Select Carve Top Jazzmaster

Amps
Andrews Amp Labs Spectraverb through a Forte 3D cab with an EVM 12L speaker

Effects
J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer OD/Boost
Chicago Iron Octavia fuzz
Real McCoy Custom and Dunlop Cry Baby wahs
Xotic SL Drive and EP Booster
MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay
Skreddy Pedals Echo

Strings and Picks
6-string guitar: D'Addario EJ22 (.013-.056)
8-string guitar: custom D'Addario set (.015-.064)
Dunlop fingerpicks and thumbpick
Ernie Ball glass slide

Were you playing a “sit-down” lap steel?
Yes, but I started standing up after I stopped playing in the Top 40 band. I wanted to move around more. I was playing lap steel, but I wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, or whoever was playing regular guitar standing up. I thought that looked so cool. Wayne Rogers, who was at Gold Tone at the time, told me they
had this lap steel that was like the old Oahu style. He said, “You can strap this thing around your
neck and play!” I wanted to play it like a Dobro, where you strap it on and it still faces you like a table. But we couldn’t get it to stay up like that—it kept falling
flat against my stomach, like a regular guitar. I thought, “This looks cool!” I continued to play like that and have been doing it ever since.

Was it much of an adjustment to switch from sitting to standing up, playing parallel with
your body?
It was huge! It’s not something you discover on Monday and then go to the nearest open jam and try it on Tuesday. I almost had to start learning to play all over again. I couldn’t see my frets the way
I could when they faced me, like on a lap steel. I
had marks on the side of the neck, like a traditional guitar, which I could see. I look at those to determine where I am, but lots of times I’m playing with my eyes closed, so I really depend on my ear. It definitely took a little time. When I adapted to it, though, it felt more comfortable than sitting down.

Some of your licks seem influenced by classic lead guitarists, rather than steel players. Who influenced you?
I started listening to a little bit of Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and James Brown’s guitarists—that’s Guitar 101. Lately, I’ve been listening to Eric Gales—he’s just phenomenal. Eric Johnson was one of my favorites, as well. I’m always trying to mimic the guitar, listening to what they’re doing and trying to apply it to what I do.

Gary Paulo largely handles the rhythm chores in your band. Is this because the steel doesn’t lend itself to that kind of playing, or is it so you can concentrate on singing?
It’s more to concentrate on singing. When I’m singing and playing at the same time, the tuning can drift off. I have to focus. My secret is to place the microphone so my head points down and I can see what I’m doing. When we recorded our live album, I didn’t want to chance being out of tune or singing wrong notes. When I’m freed from singing, I try to chime in as far as the rhythm and chord progressions, but it’s a challenge doing that without looking directly at the guitar. I don’t know too many people singing and playing steel with the guitars flat to their body, so I don’t have anyone to watch and learn from.

Describe your guitar.
It’s like a Telecaster with eight strings and a really fat neck so I can raise the strings and play slide. A friend of mine made it. I told him I had this vision of a Strat, Tele, or Les Paul style guitar mixed with the lap steel. I helped design it and he built it for me. He’s not a known builder—he’s just a guy who knows how to use his hands. I gave him the idea, and he came back with a Telecaster-style guitar with a Macassar ebony fretboard and a lacewood top.

“I would come in with a big, red Afro and a suit. I was the Liberace of the church at the time.”
Where did you get the pickups?
The pickups are Lollars. They’re based off an old Fender Stringmaster lap steel because my grandfather was known for playing that guitar. I loved the sound, and my dad had the same type of pickups. I wanted to keep a tiny bit of the “sacred steel” influence from my family. Those particular pickups get closest to that sound.

How do you tune it?
It’s in open D, but I throw in E andB at the top. I tune certain strings up and down for different songs to help me be comfortable playing and singing at the same time. My 6-string is in open E.

Is the 6-string a standard guitar with a raised nut and bridge?
It is a Fender Select Carve Top Jazzmaster. I raised the strings a little bit, put a set of .012s or .013s on there, and tuned it open to E. That’s a heck of a tone with those guitars.

YOUTUBE IT
Ghent shows some fancy slide work on his converted Fender Select Carve Top Jazzmaster. His solo gets really interesting at 4:18.

What amp do you use?
For a while, I was using a ’64 Fender Super Reverb with heavy 10" speakers. I told my amp guy, Jeff Andrews, it wasn’t giving me everything I wanted. He had all these great things he could do, but I didn’t want to modify the amp that much. So, he said, “I have these amps. You can try them out.” I’ve been playing his amp ever since. It’s a 40-watt Andrews Amp Labs Spectraverb. I’m playing it through a Forte 3D cab with an EVM 12L speaker—it’s got panels on the side that are open, so you get both a closed-back and an open-back feel.

You use some pedals, don’t you?
A lot of times I use just a guitar and amp, but in situations where I want a little extra boost, I might use the J. Rockett Archer pedal. I’ve been using that with a Chicago Iron Octavia to get that fuzz thing going. On the recording I was using a Real McCoy Custom wah, though I love Dunlop Cry Babys too. I was also using an Xotic SL Drive and their EP Booster, as well as an MXR Carbon Copy delay or the Skreddy Echo.

I try to keep it simple, but my dad humbles me every now and then. I look at his rig and he’s plugging straight into a Twin Reverb. It shows me it’s okay to have all that great stuff, but don’t get so caught up in it that you can’t focus on playing.

YOUTUBE IT
AJ Ghent tears it up on his custom 8-string “stand-up lap steel” guitar.


What’s next for the AJ Ghent Band?
We’ll be working on an actual studio album. We want to be able to go in a studio and put a lot of our influences on it at a slower pace than, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1—go for it!” Other than the new album, it’s just heavy touring and running - Premier Guitar

“This is what it must have felt like to see Jimi Hendrix for the first time, before he got famous,” she says, a woman in the crowd, her hands cupped around my ear for clarity. I didn’t know her, but she was being sincere.

Several things occur to me as she blends back into her group. She definitely was born long after Hendrix died, her analogy was appropriate, and I’ll probably steal her line to describe what it was like that late September night at the Sautee Jamboree. Like seeing Hendrix.

The first people to see Hendrix, as we remember him, witnessed the big bang of the electric guitar universe, something unseen before; and those of us who have seen J Wunder (Aubrey Ghent Jr., who mostly goes by AJ Ghent) know that he is exploring uncharted places with his eight-string instrument...

Jerry Grillo
- Georgia Trend Magazine

When the bearded white dude introduced himself, AJ Ghent was nonplussed. “I didn’t have a clue who Zac Brown was,” recalls Ghent, whose band was rolling into a midnight set when Grammy winner Brown entered the almost empty Dixie Tavern one evening last summer. After the gig, Ghent and Brown hung out, talking. They didn’t leave the tavern until seven in the morning. “We clicked right away,” says Ghent.

Since then, the AJ Ghent Band has opened for Brown nationwide, introducing audiences to the evolution of “sacred steel,” an African American gospel style pioneered by Ghent’s great-uncle Willie Eason; grandfather Henry Nelson; and father Aubrey Ghent Sr. “They’re like the kings of sacred steel, but I didn’t want to be defined by what they’d done, or be stuck inside the box of a church environment,” says Ghent, twenty-seven, who moved to Atlanta from Florida in 2012, building on a regional following while playing with anomalously influential bandleader Col. Bruce Hampton.

Now, when he isn’t conjuring James Brown on vocals, Ghent makes his custom eight-string steel guitar wail like a spectral woman, often harmonizing with the vocals of his front-line bandmates, wife MarLa Ghent and sister Tiffany Ghent Belle. Will Groth (drums), Seth Watters (bass), and Gary Paulo (rhythm guitar/sax) bring rhythmic funk to the band’s bluesy rock.

The group is at work on a debut album for Brown’s Southern Ground Artists label. “I’d like to create the energy of a live experience with a studio album,” says Ghent, for whom the live experience has changed. “I knew small clubs and pizza joints. Then we played the Georgia Dome with Zac, and it was like adjusting your ears to the sound of a million people screaming.”

This article originally appeared in our July 2014 issue under the headline "From Altar to Arena." - Atlanta Magazine

Soul-singing, guitar-slinging and talented to the highest degree - The Bluegrass Situation

Bluesy, blustery funk rock with its nod to James Brown soul and Prince swagger. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A lust-filled, swaggering, stormy slide-guitar playing front man who sings tales of heartbreak, betrayal and beauty, AJ Ghent is reminiscent of James Brown and Otis Redding as he bellows out funky rock. His guitar playing is a masterful mix of Jimi Hendrix, Albert King and Ben Harper." - The Chattanoogan

A guy to really watch out for….bubbling to the surface now, it’s his turn. - WABE (Atlanta, GA)