South African blues-rock guitar virtuoso Dan Patlansky was born in 1981 in Johannesburg into a music-loving family. Growing up on the classic rock, blues, jazz, funk, and soul in his parents' record collection, he went on to discover Pink Floyd, who became his favorite band. From there he got heavily into Stevie Ray Vaughan and decided to devote himself to blues-rock, forming his first band at age 16. His debut album Standing at the Station, self-released in 2000, led to a short-lived deal with Blue Note, resulting in his only major-label release, 2004's True Blues. In the following two years, he was twice taken to New Orleans by promoter Selwyn Miller, where he played numerous showcase gigs. Once back home, he continued plugging away, growing his profile in South Africa with a string of albums on his own label. He finally broke out internationally in 2014, when his seventh record, Dear Silence Thieves, was voted album of the year in Blues Rock Review. Produced by Theo Crous, it was the first fully developed expression of his own style of combining elements of classic blues and modern rock. That year he opened for Bruce Springsteen and toured with Joe Satriani; the following year he was rated fourth best rock guitarist in the world by Total Guitar magazine. His 2016 follow-up album, IntroVertigo, was also recorded with Crous, but he chose to self-produce 2018's Perfection Kills, capturing a raw, live-in-the-studio vibe that closely replicated how his band sounds in concert. ~ John D. Buchanan