Laith Al-Saadi

A chat with award winning blues artist and The Voice finalist Laith Al-Saadi as well as fans Jaime, Jane, Ron, Sylvia, Jerry, Jodi, Gale, Tobi, and Greg. The fans share their stories of discovering Laith through The Voice and local performances in Ann Arbor. We discuss our amazement at Laith’s riff weaving abilities by layering songs within songs. We chat about the influence of the Beatles. And Laith shares the story of meeting his guitar hero, Joe Walsh  

Becoming a fan of Laith Al-Saadi

Ron and Sylvia became instant fans of Laith after hearing him perform on The Voice. They collected all of the performances that were recorded and available on iTunes. In fact, they are such devoted fans that their sons call them Laith Al-Saadi groupies. They met Laith at a show in Indianapolis and have seen him a total of seven times including a drive-in show at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts this past July. They have also seen him up close at the City Winery in Chicago. Laith loves those venues as they are great listening rooms.

Sylvia and Ron would love to see the YouTube video of Laith’s blind audition on the show. Sadly, the show only keeps the videos up for a couple of years. If anyone from The Voice is listening, how about releasing the videos of past performances for fans to enjoy at any time?

Jane and her husband met Laith back around 2008 when he was growing out his most awesome beard. They became fans not only of his music, but of Laith himself. Jane shared how kind and friendly Laith has been over the years. Jane and her husband would see Laith as often as they could at the local venues in Ann Arbor. Laith even played at Jane’s daughter’s wedding drawing folks from a couple other weddings being held at the same venue.

Weaving Riffs and Tower Records

Jerry and Jodi caught Laith in Summerville a few years ago. While there are many things they love about Laith, one thing that stands out is his ability to interject a medley of other songs while playing another. When Jerry and Jodi saw Laith, he threw in a piece of “La Villa Strangiato'' by Rush as part of a cover of Tom Petty’s “Running Down A Dream”. Jerry admits he and Jodi aren’t always on the same musical page, but they agree on the phenomenal performances of Laith Al-Saadi.

Laith shared that he is a huge Rush fan having seen them 17 times. He had a fanboy moment during a meet and greet with Rush during their R40 tour. This led us into reminiscing about waiting in line for tickets or album releases at Tower Records.

The Beatles and Laith’s Journey into Guitar

Laith’s journey into guitar began with wanting to sing along with his friends playing Beatles music. The portability of the guitar offered a way to sit around with friends and play the music they love. Starting out with a blue Magnum Explorer copy and a Yamaha Budokan amp, Laith called up his buddy on the phone and jammed. He couldn’t play a lick back then, but he sure can now.

Laith’s affinity for stringed instruments took off at Community High in Ann Arbor, where he excelled in bass guitar. After a couple of years at Western he transferred to the University of Michigan where he double majored in bass and guitar. At Michigan, Laith played in the big band studying under Paul Keller. He also had the opportunity to study with greats such as Rufus Reed, Edgar Meyer, and the legendary Ray Brown.

Photographic Memories

Jaime is astounded with Laith’s ability to remember each meeting with fans including where and when. She asked Laith if he has a photographic memory? Laith laughs saying that he isn’t sure it is actually photographic, he does have a great memory for music. He can play a song in his head and then translate it on the guitar. As Laith relates, songs are the short stories of music.

Laith’s Key Influence and Favorite Laith tunes

Jaime had another question about what one artist has influenced or inspired Laith the most. Since Laith can remember, The Beatles have been a pivotal influence in his life and music. His favorite album is Abbey Road. The message of love resonates with him to this day, particularly “The End”.

After sharing a thought about the final chord in the Beatles “The End”, Jerry turned our discussion to what everyone’s favorite Laith song is. A very tough question where the answer evolves over time or changes based on the day you ask. Jerry loves “Complete Disgrace”. It is a tough call for Ron, but he digs “What It Means”. Sylvia was quick with “Should’ve Questioned Her Motivations”. Jaime’s favorite song by Laith is “Gone”.

Friday Nights with Laith and more concert memories.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Laith has been livestreaming his Quarantine sessions on Friday nights. Jerry and Jodi haven’t missed one. Ron and Sylvia ironically missed one livestream as they were visiting in Honor, Michigan. This sparked a conversation about the Cherry Hut in Beulah. Laith spent summer vacations as a kid in the area.

Talking about the livestreams, the conversation turned to the great show Laith had at Otus Supply which Ron and Sylvia caught on the boardwalk vacationing in Michigan. Thinking back, Sylvia remembered being up front with Laith and his band at Lone Oak Vineyard in Grass Lake, MI. Laith mentioned that he misses playing that venue as it felt just like being in someone’s living room. Jerry was quick to offer up his living room in New Hampshire once all this blows over.

Tobi shared that she met Laith at The Write-Off Room in Woodland, CA and then later at the Maui Sugar Mill in Tarzana, CA with Geoff Pearlman on bass. Geoff is a hell of a guitar player as well and is featured on the soundtrack to Echo In The Canyon which documents the music that emerged from Laurel Canyon in the 70’s.

The Voice and Joe Walsh

Jaime asked if Laith had made any lasting contacts from his appearance on The Voice. Laith mentioned that he became good friends with Owen Danoff and Ryan Quinn. They shared a love of spicy food and would meet for dinner while sequestered during taping of the show. The security was strict and getting good takeout was a blessing. 

The highlight of Laith’s experience on The Voice was performing with his guitar hero Joe Walsh. Laith never expected to get as far as he did. However, playing with Joe was a dream come true. He was able to later get on stage with Joe when he played at Pine Knob (ok..DTE Music). According to Laith, Joe is the nicest guy and he was thrilled that he contacted him to play after The Voice.

Ringo Starr

It Turns out that Joe Walsh’s wife Marjorie is sisters with Ringo Starr’s wife Barbara Bach. We imagined what holiday dinners are like. We also dreamed about being able to witness Ringo’s All Star Band with Joe, Nils Lofgren, Gregg Rolie, Steve Lukather, Levon Helm, and Jim Keltner. 

Laith has a new album coming out in 2021 which includes Jim Keltner on drums. Jim mentioned that he loved the last record he worked on with Laith called Real. This prompted Laith to get Jim involved in his latest project. It turns out that Jim and Ringo are good friends. Laith asked Jim while they were in the studio if he would pass along a copy of Real to Ringo. Jim said sure. This means that the kid influenced to become a musician by the Beatles, may have his own music playing in Ringo’s house right now. What a trip.

Traveling to see Laith

Since we can’t travel right now, we share our dream of where we would like to see Laith play. Tobi wants to see Laith at the new Write-Off Room when it opens. Laith has yet to play there and it sounds like Tobi has connections. Jodi would love to see Laith play in Nashville since they have not yet visited this fine music city. Jerry would keep it local to New Hampshire in his backyard. Ron and Sylvia would love to see Laith at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival or The Blind Pig. 

Greg gave another shout out for Nashville. Specifically, BB King’s. He would also like to see Laith in his hometown of Coldwater at JT’s. Finally, Jaime would like to see Laith at a campfire anywhere in the U.S.A. However, if she could pick one place it would be to see Laith in New Orleans. As New Orleans inspired the tremendous song “Gone” and other songs from his album, Real. Sounds like a road-trip is in order.

Dig into all the intriguing stories, laughs, and much more in this episode of Fans With Bands with Laith Al-Saadi. We hope you enjoy it! Subscribe to Fans With Bands on your favorite podcast service such as Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audible or Stitcher.  Be sure to rate the show and please send us feedback. We would love to hear from you.

 

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