For blues-rocker Marc Ford, a return to the clubs is a blessing.
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Ford’s crazy train included a stint with the Black Crowes 10 years ago, during which the band was booked into arenas, before the guitarist moved on to a more personal style of blues as well as a spell with Ben Harper’s road group.
Ford retains the melodic, searing fretboard style familiar to fans of the Crowes’ 1992 sophomore effort, “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,” which hit No. 1 on the charts and went double platinum.
“It’s good for the ego to play the big places, but the only connection you have at those gigs is with the other guys in the band — and you spend too much time with them as it is,” mused Ford, 41, who lives in Orange County, California.
His latest album, “Weary and Wired” (Blues Bureau), is a collection of ballads and straight-ahead rockers that has already made an impression in Europe.
“There’s a lot more audience for blues overseas, and I guess it’s always been like that,” Ford says. “I feel like an old jazz guy who has to go to Europe to be appreciated.”
A highlight of the new album is a gritty cover of Willie Dixon’s “The Same Thing,” done in a swampy style.
Modern Guitars magazine recently said the disc “is an extraordinary collection of songs … [and] his guitar-playing is top notch.”
Ford began his career with the blues-rock outfit Burning Tree in the late ’80s. A power trio featuring Ford on guitars and vocals, Mark Dutton on bass and Doni Gray on drums, Burning Tree released its self-titled debut in 1990.
A commercial failure but a critical success, Burning Tree allowed Ford and company to tour extensively throughout most of the next couple of years, opening for the Black Crowes and others.
When the Crowes severed their original guitarist, Ford stepped in, recording “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,” and the following albums, “Amorica” and “Three Snakes and One Charm.”
Ford left the Crowes in 1997, following the band’s run on the summer Furthur Festival tour.
Crowes leaders Chris and Rich Robinson cited Ford’s excessive drug use as the reason for his firing, but Ford himself was quick to note that he was not the only one with a drug problem.
Now sober, Ford says he doesn’t miss the personal problems that plagued the arena attraction.
“I like the fact that I don’t have to apologize for anything that’s going on around me,” he said. “This band is my thing.”
In 2004, the Crowes asked him to rejoin for their “All Join Hands” reunion run.
But two days before he was due to hit the road, Ford announced that he had left the Crowes in order to protect his hard-won sobriety.