Luther's Blues

In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to share a little about someone I admired a great deal; Luther Allison, the talented and energetic blues guitarist and musician.

Luther Allison and I became aquainted in 1981 in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was studying art at the U of N, and working about two blocks from the Zoo Bar, which attracted big names blues musicians, in spite of, or maybe because of its miniscule size and postage stamp dance floor. I had seen him perform a few times there, and on this particular afternoon I stopped by the Zoo while waiting on my bus home. Luther was there and we struck up a conversation, which we continued off and on for the next couple of years.

Luther was a humble man, full of life, and had a lot of stories. He came from a very large family, and had endured many painful struggles on the way to success. He often told me how different things were in Europe when he toured - his experience was that Europe, and France especially, was much more color blind, particularly towards performers.

Luther had a lot of down time on the road, and I would occasionaly get a letter or postcards from some dive motel where he would be awaiting the night's show. He liked to watch the 'soapies' in the afternoons, call his family and friends, then eat a small meal before going to the club to play.

Luther moved to France in 1983, and we lost touch sometime after that. When I heard he had died, in 1997, I felt like the world had lost one of those souls who leaves a bigger hole in the universe than others. Among my box of treasures, I still keep a couple of letters from Luther, a postcard from Paris, and a backstage pass. When I happen upon these mementos, what I remember isn't the gritty, burning down the house bluesman, but the kind gentleman who liked to talk about his brothers and sisters, his family, his hopes and love of the blues. I remember overcast winter afternoons in a little bar in the middle of the country, quietly passing time with a friend.

Thanks for the memories, Luther.

To read more about Luther: http://www.jaisunphoto.com/trueblues.html
A letter from Rocky, Luther's wife: http://www.jaisunphoto.com/rocky2.html

If you love the blues, and would like to support it: http://www.soul-fixin.com/

Biography from Luther's Web site (http://www.lutherallison.com/)
A Legend Lost...
Born in Widener, Arkansas in 1939, Luther Allison (the 14th of 15 musically gifted children) first connected to the blues at age ten, when he began playing the diddley bow (a wire attached by nails to a wall with rocks for bridges and a bottle to fret the wire). His family migrated to Chicago in 1951, and Luther began soaking in the sounds of Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Nighthawk. He was classmates with Muddy Waters' son and occasionally stopped in the Waters' house to watch the master rehearse. It wasn't until he was 18, already in Chicago for seven years that Luther began playing blues on a real guitar and jamming with his brother Ollie's band. By 1957, Allison had dropped out of school and formed a band called The Rolling Stones. Unhappy with the name, they became The Four Jivers, gigging all over the West Side of Chicago. Before long, Luther was jamming with the West Side's best, including Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and Freddie King, who encouraged Allison to sing. "That," said Allison, "was my school."

Read the entire article at www.lutherallison.com.