GALLERY: Show Us Your Gear - Unique Instruments II

“By the end of senior year in high school, I was like, ‘I want to do guitar. I want to have a career in music.’ In order to do that nowadays, you have to do online posting with TikTok and Instagram,” Amani Burnham says. “So from September of 2023, I started posting, and the rest is history.”

From being an unknown bedroom guitarist to potentially becoming the next big thing in blues, Burnham’s journey has moved at a breakneck speed. His debut album, Roots & Wings, dropped the day before his 21st birthday. He also recently opened up for Ted Nugent at Heritage Hall in Ardmore, Oklahoma. For the evening closer, Nugent invited him, along with Phil X and Jared James Nichols, to jam on several songs. At last count, Burnham has amassed around a quarter of a million followers, with combined views of almost 30 million between his Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook accounts. It’s hard to believe that less than three years ago, Burnham wouldn’t even show his face in his videos.

“I was definitely shy at the time, because the only people who followed me were just friends and random people I had known from high school,” Burnham says. His very first clip, a take on Hendrix’s “Remember,” only showed a domed ceiling light fixture onscreen. Burnham was nowhere in sight and, as is to be expected, engagement was modest.