In recent months, multi-instrumentalist, internet sensation and frequent Dave Grohl collaborator Nandi Bushell has been busy at work sharpening her skills behind the drum set and the microphone.
However, the burgeoning musician recently took to Twitter to serve a timely reminder that, in case you’d forgotten, she’s also a dab hand with an electric guitar in her arms, and flexed her six-string skills with a faithful cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing.
Armed with her “Peace”-adorned, angled humbucker-equipped HSS Fender Stratocaster and lashings of generous slapback delay, Bushell makes light work of the 1976 track’s silky intra-chord flourishes, dancing through the double-stop hammer-on and pull-off passages and pentatonic embellishments with impressive ease.
The tone is pretty spot on, too, with just the right amount of low-end juice to punctuate those open- and low-string bass roots and a sweet dosage of high-end sizzle for the chromatic licks. It’s only the intro, though, so here’s hoping a full version comes out sometime in the future.
“Peace, Love and Respect!” wrote Bushell on Twitter. “This is Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, one of my favorite Hendrix tunes. I have spent this week relaxing, off school, and jamming.”
It’s been some time since we’ve seen Bushell behind the fretboard of one of her go-to guitars. Just over a week ago, she set up her microphone and teamed up with Tom Morello, Julien Baker, Serj Tankian and more for an Afghan charity single, God Help Us All.
Before that, she had been particularly active on her YouTube channel, donning her drumsticks for a cover of Ed Sheeran and Bring Me The Horizon’s new take on Bad Habits, Rush’s Tom Sawyer and Tool’s Forty Six & 2.
In terms of her guitar-related escapades, Bushell received Matt Bellamy’s signature Manson MBM-1 as a gift from the Muse frontman himself, was praised by The Pixies for her all-looped cover of Where Is My Mind? and obtained Flea’s seal of approval for her rendition of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Under the Bridge.
She’s also built a formidable partnership with Dave Grohl, with whom she joined forces onstage to perform Foo Fighters’ Everlong during the band’s gig at the LA Forum in August last year.
Morello is also on the list of regular Nandi Bushell collaborators, having united with the Rage maestro for a rabble-rousing climate change anthem, The Children Rise Up. He also gifted Bushell his signature Fender Soul Power Stratocaster, which she used to cover Audioslave’s Cochise.
