Since reigniting mainstream interest in rockabilly as generously bequiffed, Gretsch guitar-toting frontman with the Stray Cats, Brian Setzer has played alongside Bob Dylan and Robert Plant (in The Honeydrippers), made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in La Bamba, been the first guitarist (with his 17-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra) to give his name to a full-on swing and jump-blues big band while racking up multiple Grammys along the way. Prior to arriving on the late-70s NYC scene – first with new-wave art-rockers the Bloodless Pharoahs, then the (soon to be Stray) Tom Cats –Setzer had cut his musical teeth on an instrument not generally associated with rock’n’roll.
Did you choose the euphonium, or did the euphonium choose you?