Maya Delilah's soul-soothing blend of jazz, pop, and, well, soul, broke through during the pandemic, but the guitarist and singer-songwriter was far from just a fleeting trend.
The artist doubled down on her genre-blending playing and songwriting style in her Blue Note Records debut, The Long Way Around, which firmly cemented her as a guitar player with the touch and technicality that recalls the likes of John Mayer.
Delilah's decision to play sans pick harks back to her acoustic guitar and banjo roots, transferred to electric guitar, with her fingerpicking tone becoming even more pronounced by her decision to almost exclusively plug directly into a Fender Blues Junior, without relying on any pedals.
And while, as a Fender Class of 2024 alum, she's mostly seen brandishing Strats nowadays, she doesn't shy away from mentioning an off-kilter choice as her all-time favorite guitar: an electric Maton, which she unearthed at a guitar shop in London.
“I just love it, and there’s apparently only two of them, so I feel very lucky to have it,” she tells Guitar World. “It’s got a slight hollow body, so it’s a really warm jazz tone. I spent seven hours in the guitar shop that day before I bought it to make sure it was the right guitar.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Delilah credits a jazz giant as her inspiration for her fingerstyle technique.
"The guitarist I actually used to reference as a kid for not using a pick was Wes Montgomery, because he used his thumb a lot, and I used to use my thumb more than I do now.”
“I think the only thing it feels like it holds me back from is occasional speed,” she discloses. “But at this time, I feel like I get a lot more feeling when I play with my fingers as well.”
Speaking of Montgomery, there's another fast-rising guitarist who named him as one of the players who shaped his core sound...
For more from Delilah, plus new interviews with Mark Knopfler and Tim Pierce, pick up your own copy of issue 594 of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.
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