Sonny Landreth is a little perplexed why more people don't play slide guitar.

It has a mesmerizing effect on Landreth, who admits he is intrigued every day he plays his own slide guitar or listens to someone else.

“It's very soulful, ” he says. “It's like having another voice singing.”

It is that allure that finds slides used around the world on a variety of stringed instruments. The techniques used worldwide are as varied as the styles of music or the differences in the sound of human voices.

DETAILS “The Magic & Mystery of the Slide Guitar,” with Sonny Landreth and David Lindley When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Where: Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad Tickets: Sold out Phone: (760) 438-5996 Online: museumofmakingmusic.org

Some musicians use bones or glass bottlenecks as a slide. Some employ cut-off steel tubing and some just use anything they can find. Jimi Hendrix used a cigarette lighter and bluesman Watermelon Slim has been known to use steel accessories off the trucks he once drove.

The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad is exploring slide players with its new exhibition “The Magic & Mystery of the Slide Guitar.” The exhibit opens Saturday with a special sold-out performance of Landreth and world music aficionado David Lindley, two of the leading slide practitioners of the 21st century.

The exhibition, which includes more than 70 instruments that have been used by slide players over the past century, continues through the end of March with five other notable performances by slide players.

“The slide kind of flies a bit under the radar,” says Landreth, who first made his name playing for singer-songwriter John Hiatt. Today, Landreth's slide playing is celebrated worldwide for its originality and creativity.

“It's a completely different beast than playing guitar, which is hard enough on its own,” he said.

Landreth and Lindley are kindred spirits when it comes to the slide. They play very different styles, but have great respect for each other and enjoy the times they have been able to sit down and play together.

“David is the ultimate life of the party,” Landreth says. “He is so eclectic and knows so much about music from all over the world that you can hear that in his playing.”

Landreth's more rock-inspired music hasn't gone unnoticed. His recent CD, “From the Reach,” features such musical collaborators as Eric Clapton, Robben Ford, Vince Gill, Mark Knopfler and Dr. John.

Most people identify slide-guitar playing with two forms of American music: blues from the Mississippi Delta and Hawaiian music.

The truth is that slides have surfaced as tools as a variety of instruments around the world, from single-stringed instruments in Africa to multiple-stringed instruments in China, Japan and India.

Such American musicians as Johnny Winter, Bonnie Raitt, Elmore James and George Thorogood have employed slide guitars to accent their style of blues. Brian Jones and Mick Taylor used the slide in the 1960s and 1970s for the Rolling Stones.

It is a staple in Hawaiian and country music on steel guitars and Dobros, while country musicians Lee Roy Parnell and Jerry Douglas have made careers out of playing slide. Ry Cooder and Lindley have been instrumental in promoting slide guitars in virtually all of their musical adventures.

Landreth was born in Mississippi but grew up in Louisiana. At age 10, he started playing trumpet, an instrument he would play in school bands and orchestras for several years. By age 13, he discovered the guitar and within three or four years didn't want to play anything else.

He admits his first efforts at moving a glass slide over his guitar strings were tortuous for him and anyone else within earshot.

“It's not something you just walk over and do,” he says. “It takes a lot of work and patience to figure out how it sounds best. But when you make it that far, you know it was worth it.”

Landreth's interest in the slide was spawned by the sounds of Delta bluesmen he had heard throughout his life. He doesn't remember seeing anyone play slide until 1970 when the Allman Brothers Band played in Lafayette, La. Bandleader Duane Allman was already established as one of the greatest rock guitar players and his slide playing was an integral part of the band's sound.

“He was really amazing,” Landreth said. “I couldn't believe what he was doing. But it helped me understand what was possible with a slide.”

Landreth took to the slide guitar with a vengeance. He got the chance to play guitar with zydeco kingpin Clifton Chenier, whose blues-based accordion playing has plenty of room for a slide guitarist. At 16, Landreth had seen Chenier play near his Lafayette home and within a few years he was playing in Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band.

“I would liken that experience to being raised in Chicago and getting the chance to play in Muddy Waters' band,” he says. “Clifton was the consummate entertainer and such a dynamic force. It's as if Muddy Waters had put me under his wing.”

Growing up with the musically rich environment of Louisiana also motivated Landreth.

“I was blessed to be exposed to blues, country, Cajun, zydeco, jazz, New Orleans second-line and other music that opened my mind,” he says. “In Louisiana, that's just the way it is. ”

Landreth soon found that the call-and-response style of gospel or soul music could be achieved on a musical instrument using a slide. He could sing a line and back it up with a guitar sound of another voice.

“I think slide playing has a lot more potential for discovering and developing new sounds,” he said. “You can do a lot of things with a guitar, but most of them have already been done. When I'm playing slide, I keep discovering new things.

“I think it says a lot about the nature of creativity. I push past one boundary and go to another. As long as I can still feel a spark of magic when I play it, I'll keep playing it.”