Garret T. Willie – Bristol Exchange - A gravel‑soaked shockwave of old‑soul blues rock
Texas blues-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire Ally Venable is able to play sultry blues rock tunes embellished with lots of tasty guitar solos and has been playing some jaw dropping gigs throughout the UK.
She is supported by Garret T. Willie, an old soul masquerading as an uncommonly wise, weathered, witty and world-weary 23-year-old.
The Canadian blues guitar player comes from Kingcome Inlet, off the coast of British Columbia but at heart, he is a rock ’n’ roller who offers hardscrabble blues and the purest and rawest rock ’n’ roll.
He can not only rip it up on the guitar, but also with the gut-busting honesty of someone who understands that if you ain’t lived it, you shouldn’t sing it.
Opening the gig, Garret T. Willie walked on stage like a man already halfway through the gig; denim vest, white tee, Gibson SG slung low and within seconds the room knew it wasn’t getting a warm‑up act, it was getting a shockwave.
At just 26, Willie carries himself with the grit and gravity of someone twice his age, his voice a deep, gravel‑soaked growl that feels lived‑in rather than styled. It’s the kind of sound that makes you look twice: how does someone this young sing like he’s spent decades in roadhouse bars?
Fresh off releasing Bill’s Café, Willie hit the UK with the urgency of an artist who’s been waiting years to get in front of these crowds.
He’s been playing for twenty years, picking up a guitar at six with Angus Young as the blueprint and you can hear that lineage in every riff. There’s the restless energy, the high‑octane bite, the blues‑rock swagger that feels inherited but never imitated.
His set wasn’t rigid or rehearsed; it moved on instinct. No fixed setlist, no polite pacing just Willie and his tight backing band reading the room and flooring the accelerator. The semi‑hollow guitarist carved sharp lines through the mix, the bassist locked in front of the Marshall stacks, and Willie himself switched between bearing down on his SG and pointing straight into the crowd with sweat‑dripping intensity. It felt raw, urgent, and completely unfiltered.
The songs, whether blues stompers or AC/DC‑leaning bursts, came out heavy, loud, and unapologetically direct. But the real story was the delivery: honest, muscular, and full of that old‑soul fire he’s been carrying since childhood in Alert Bay, British Columbia.
There’s no doubt Willie is part of a wider outlaw‑storytelling tradition, but live, he’s something simpler and more immediate: a young guitarist with a bruised voice, a burning instinct, and a stage presence that feels impossible to ignore.
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