3 Questions for Dutch Guitarist Jan Akkerman

If you loved the shredding guitar solos on “Hocus Pocus,” the 1973 hit single by Focus, you’re in for a treat. That guitarist, Jan Akkerman, has subsequently recorded about two dozen solo albums that unite melodic progressive rock, earthy blues rock reminiscent of ZZ Top, suave Django-jazz, and classical influences in a style that somehow always remains as unique as a fingerprint. I collected them the hard way, one by one, but you can get them all in a tidy and affordable 26-disc CD set: The Complete Jan Akkerman. His latest album is Close Beauty. “When you are too close to an object,” he observes, “you cannot see its real value. The same applies to music.” He was kind enough to answer three questions for this first-ever installment of the “3 Questions” series:

Your new album Close Beauty is being released on a double-disc gold vinyl set (as well as single CD, download, and Spotify). Now that LP sales are close to exceeding CD sales, what do you think of the vinyl revival?

Well, I think it’s nostalgia. The artwork, of course, is unsurpassed. One way or another vinyl sounds milder to me. It has more class and it’s wonderful to have a big closet full of LPs. It’s more valuable.

If you could choose three albums from your extensive solo discography for younger fans to explore, which would they be?

For the younger audience I would choose From the Basement because of the heavy guitar sound. 10,000 Clowns on a Rainy Day is a double live CD everybody likes. And C.U., recorded with a DJ, is very danceable.

Most of your live performances are focused on your home ground of the Netherlands. Do you have any plans to tour in other parts of the world?

Sure, I love to play in other parts of the world. In the near future the band is going to play a benefit concert in Bucharest, Romania — it’s to support a good cause, the Corneliu Coposu Foundation. We’ll do some gigs in Germany next year. In January 2021, the U.K. Hope there will be more.