Luther Allison born August 17, 1939

Luther Sylvester Allison (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Luther Sylvester Allison was born on August 18, 1939, in Widener, Arkansas, the fourteenth of 15 children. He was the 14th of 15 children and his father and brothers worked in the cottonfields. Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he and several of his siblings sang and toured in a family gospel group called The Southern Travellers. He moved with his family to Chicago in 1951 and attended Farragut High School where he was classmates with Muddy Waters' son. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he dropped out of school and began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. One of his older brothers, Ollie, soon began working as a guitarist on Chicago's booming South Side blues scene. By the middle of his teens, Allison was good enough to sit in with his brother's band on club dates.

From 1954, Allison jammed with his brother's band, the Ollie Lee Allison Band. In 1957 a blues group was formed to play the Bungalow Club in Chicago. The line-up included Luther and his brothers Grant and Ollie, and they called themselves the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters' song. They soon tired of the name and became the Four Jivers. Allison was becoming a skilled guitarist, influenced by B. B. King and Otis Rush. Allison's big break came in 1957, when Howlin' Wolf invited him to the stage. The same year he worked briefly with Jimmy Dawkins, playing in local clubs. Freddie King took Allison under his wing, and after King got a record deal, Allison took over his gig in the house band of a club on Chicago's West Side. He worked the club circuit in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with Little Richard, Magic Slim and Muddy Waters.

                                  

He recorded his first single in 1965. In 1967 he achieved some national recognition through the compilation album Sweet Home Chicago, for Delmark Records. This prompted Delmark to record an album, Love Me Mama, with him and his then group, the Blue Nebulae, in 1969. The label's manager, Bob Koester, said that he believed Allison to be "one of the most original exponents of the modern blues". The same year he appeared at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival and played on the albums Further On Up The Road by Shakey Jake Harris and Slim's Got This Thing Goin' On by Sunnyland Slim. 

He performed a well-received set at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival and as a result was asked to perform there in each of the next three years. He toured nationwide. Solo success seemed possible when he became the first and, in the event, the only blues performer to sign with the Tamla-Motown label, but the organisation did not know how to promote the three albums he made for their subsidiary, Gordy: Bad News is Coming (1972), Luther's Blues (1974) and Night Life (1976) are now collectors' items.

In 1976 Allison came to Europe for the first time. He was disillusioned by the commercial failure of his Gordy albums and he noted that Memphis Slim and Champion Jack Dupree had settled with considerable success in Europe. He moved to France in 1977 and he told audiences, "I don't speak French but my guitar does". Allison was known for his powerful concert performances, lengthy soulful guitar solos and crowd walking with his Gibson Les Paul. He lived briefly during this period in Peoria, Illinois, where he signed with Rumble Records, releasing two live recordings, Gonna Be a Live One in Here Tonight!, produced by Bill Knight, and Power Wire Blues, produced by George Faber and Jeffrey P. Hess. Allison played the bar circuit in the United States during this period and spent eight months of the year in Europe at high-profile venues, including the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1992, he performed with the French rock and roll star Johnny Hallyday in 18 shows in Paris, also playing during the intermission.

In order to appeal to a wide following, Allison included some rock numbers by Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones in his repertoire. On being told that he played like the Stones, he said, "That's a no-no. As far as I'm concerned they play like me." He worked with his son, Bernard, a singer/guitarist who has released his own albums with his father playing harmonica. In 1988 Allison returned to his blues roots with the highly-acclaimed album, Serious. This obtained recognition in the United States and he was signed to the Chicago-based Alligator Records with Soul Fixin' Man (1993) being his first American album in 17 years. The magazine Guitar Player thought it combined "the wisdom of a master storyteller with the elegance of B. B. King, the elasticity of Buddy Guy and the big sting of Albert King". Allison toured the United States and Canada. Acknowledging the applause at the Chicago Blues Festival, he shouted, "I'm not only back. I'm unstoppable." He won four W. C. Handy Awards in 1994. With the James Solberg Band backing him, nonstop touring and the release of Blue Streak (featuring the song "Cherry Red Wine"), Allison earned more Handy Awards and gained wider recognition. He won several Living Blues Awards and was featured on the covers of blues publications.

During his tour on 10 July while performing on stage, Luther Allison felt dizzy and lost co-ordination. He was taken to hospital where it was discovered that he had a tumour on his lung that had metastasized to his brain. He cancelled appearances and in order to help with medical bills, a fund-raising night at the 100 Club in London was arranged. He began radiation therapy on July 16, which lasted until August 1. In and out of a coma, Allison died on August 12, 1997, five days before his 58th birthday, in Madison, Wisconsin. He is buried at Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois. His final album, Reckless, had just been released five months prior.

Luther & Bernard Allison

His son Bernard Allison, at one time a member of his band, is now a solo recording artist. Bernard, the youngest of nine siblings, was exposed to all kinds of music by his father. The younger Allison made his first venture into the music business at age 13, when he performed on a live album with his father.

 Luther Allison was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times called him "the Bruce Springsteen of the blues". He was a strong influence on many young blues guitarists, such as Chris Beard and Reggie Sears.

(Edited from Wikipedia and The Independent)