Last updated 05:15, Friday, 28 November 2008

When music magazine Classic Rock listed the top 10 contemporary blues musicians in the world, only one of them was from Europe – Aynsley Lister.

Personal: Aynsley Lister plays Carlisle as part of his European tour

By Stephen Blease

And the 31-year-old guitarist and songwriter plays the Blues Festival this weekend.

And yet Aynsley, originally from Bradford, didn’t set out to be a blues musician in particular. He admits that he absorbed blues in his young days almost without realising it.

“I first picked up a guitar when I was seven or eight,” he said. “My dad was a big blues fan so I was surrounded by good music when I was younger, and it just grew out of that.

“But I didn’t even know it was blues at first. I wasn’t really bothered.”

Aynsley first formed a band aged 18 – specialising in covers, as many bands do in their early days – before he began to write his own material.

He said he preferred performing his own compositions, as it was easier to put yourself into songs that have more meaning for you – and you know how you want them to be performed.

“The stuff I write is personal for me. When you perform other people’s music you are singing something that they have written for themselves. With your own songs you are closer to them.”

Not all of them, he admits, are conventional blues.

“Some of it is more rock, some of it a little bit more pop. It attracts a wider audience than a traditional blues band.

“I like bands like the Foo Fighters and Orson, and commercial pop stuff if it has a good melody.”

And he said the music he will be playing at the festival would reflect his varied influences.

“The blues fans are a really reliable audience, but it’s not going to be just straight blues,” Aynsley said. “If you stick to straight blues you will have a cult following, but what we’re playing will appeal to a wider audience.”

His appearance at the blues festival, on Sunday, is sandwiched between an extensive tour of Europe which he has just completed and putting the finishing touches to a new album, as yet untitled, which is due out in February.