artists » Luke Reynolds of Blue Merle

It seems as though the music world is falling in love with the VOX AC30 Custom Classic. More and more each day, a new artist reveals his attraction to this tone-filled amp. Another VOX “lifer” is Blue Merle’s Luke Reynolds. Born out of Nashville, Tennessee, this eclectic five-piece band fuses Americana, jazz, classical, and rock with some not-so-everyday instrumentation, i.e. the mandolin, the fiddle, and the double bass. “It’s very much American music drawing from all the genres that really had an affect on us,” Reynolds explains. “We’re all young players with a high level of energy and we’re into great, great songs.”

Blue Merle recently returned from a yearlong tour, which included stops at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Farm Aid. They are currently back in Nashville working on their follow-up to their debut release, Burning in the Sun, which premiered on Island Records earlier this year.

While he’s been a loyal VOX user, guitarist/vocalist Luke Reynolds just started playing the AC30 Custom Classic a few weeks ago. “This is the best sounding amp I’ve ever played,” says Luke. “I’ve gone through everything and the Custom Classic is so unbelievably useful.”

Luke continues, “I really like the reverb. I love having the option to use it, and I have total control over the sound of this amp. And the sound! It’s untouchable! We just got off the road not too long ago, and I’ve been writing all day every day. The AC30 Custom Classic has totally inspired me; it can take you in so many directions.”

This newfound inspiration will be heard on Blue Merle’s forthcoming album. Luke describes the writing process, “At this point, I’ve done most of the writing, but everybody in the band is a writer. We’re in the middle of working on our second album, and this one will be very much a collaborative record. Sometimes songs come very fast and other times they come from writing two or three songs together. And the only thing that works is this one part, and then you take that part and work on it for 10-12 hours a day, trying to find other parts to complement it. There’s a lot of thought and consideration that goes into our material. Above all, we make sure to be earnest, sincere, and emotional when writing songs.”

Check out the unique stylings of Blue Merle at www.bluemerle.com

By Kenny Kuehn
Photo by Alan Mayor