Bernard Allison | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | November 26, 1965 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Blues, electric blues, blues rock |
| Occupation(s) | Guitarist, singer |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | Early 1980s–present |
| Labels | Ruf, several others |
| Website | Official website |
Bernard Allison (born November 26, 1965) is an American blues guitarist and singer, based in Paris, France. [1]
Allison was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. [1] His father, Luther Allison, was a Chicago blues musician. Allison moved back and forth between Illinois and Florida, but remained close to his father's music whether with him or not, listening to his father's albums when they were apart. [2] He accompanied his father to blues festivals in the early 1970s. [1] There he was introduced to Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor and Albert King, amongst others.
Allison taught himself to play in Florida while his father was touring internationally and displayed his early skills to his father when he was 12. [3] His father brought him a Stratocaster guitar but required him to remain in school, although he did allow his son to join him on stage at the age of 18 at the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival. A week after his graduation from high school, he was invited to join Koko Taylor's touring band. During that time, he furthered his skills under the tutelage of Johnny Winter, whom he had met when younger, and Stevie Ray Vaughan whom he met in the first year of his career.
From 1985, he also tried out his headline act, Bernard Allison and Back Talk, largely active in Canada, although he remained with Koko Taylor. [1] [4] He became the bandleader for his father's touring band in Europe late in 1989, and with his father's assistance and the loan of his father's musicians recorded his debut album, The Next Generation, in Paris around Christmas that year. [1] [4] Over the next years, Allison and his father continued to collaborate, with Bernard co-writing and arranging material on his father's final three albums and Luther offering ongoing advice to his son's band. [1]
Allison released three more albums in Europe, Hang On, No Mercy, and Funkifino. In 1997 — the year of his father's death — his critically acclaimed U.S. debut, Keepin' the Blues Alive. [1] [5] was released. The album was followed by a U.S. tour and further releases. Allison's 2002 album Storms of Life charted at nmuber five on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. [1] In spite of the success of his tours and albums in the U.S., Allison remains based in Paris. [6]
In 2010, Toby Lee Marshall teamed up with Allison. Marshall was part of Allison's dynamic rhythm section, that toured Europe extensively. Marshall was featured on Allison's 2011 release, Live at the Jazzhaus. [7]
On 16 January 2015, Allison released his thirteenth album, In The Mix.
Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer.
Luther Sylvester Allison was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was Mayflower, Arkansas. Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he 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. Allison played with the bands of Howlin' Wolf and Freddie King, taking over King's band when King toured nationally. He worked with Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam and Otis Rush, and also backed James Cotton. Chicago Reader has called him "the Jimi Hendrix of blues guitar".
Ruf Records is a German independent record label, which was founded in 1994 by Luther Allison’s manager, Thomas Ruf, to promote Allison's career. The motto of the blues label is "Where Blues Crosses Over". The company's office is located in Lindewerra, Germany. As of 2008, Ruf had produced 120 releases, sold over one million albums, received two Grammy nominations and ten Blues Music Award nominations.
Sue Foley is a Canadian blues guitarist and singer. She has released 15 albums since her debut with Young Girl Blues (1992). In May 2020, Foley won her first Blues Music Award, in the 'Koko Taylor Award ' category.
Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."
James Henry “Jimmy” Dawkins was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is generally considered to have been a practitioner of the "West Side sound" of Chicago blues.
The Zoo Bar is a blues music venue and nightclub located in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, on 136 North 14th Street. Styled around the Chicago blues clubs, it is a long, narrow venue in a building built in 1921.
Danny Bryant is an English blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was born and grew up in Royston, Hertfordshire, England. At the age of 14, he began playing the guitar and became a professional guitar player at the age of 18. Since then he has toured all over the world and appeared on bills alongside a number of notable artists such as Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Joe Cocker and Mick Taylor.
Johnny B. Moore is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a member of Koko Taylor's backing band in the mid-1970s. He has recorded nine solo albums since 1987. Moore's music retains a link to the earlier Chicago blues of Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters, who also travelled to Chicago from the Mississippi Delta.
Ronnie Baker Brooks is an American Chicago blues and soul blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a respected club performer in Chicago, even before recording three solo albums for Watchdog Records. The son of fellow Chicago blues musician Lonnie Brooks, he is the brother of another blues guitarist, Wayne Baker Brooks.
Mike Zito is an American guitarist, singer, record producer, and songwriter from St. Louis, Missouri, United States. He is a co-founder of Royal Southern Brotherhood that features Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Charlie Wooton and Yonrico Scott.
E.G. Kight is an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. She has worked with many musicians, including George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Luther Allison, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, and Koko Taylor. Kight has recorded seven albums to date and received several nominations for Blues Music Awards, in the categories Contemporary Female Artist and Song of the Year.
Erja Lyytinen is a Finnish vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter.
Bonny B. is a Cambodian-Swiss blues musician and harmonica player.
Albert Castiglia is an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. Castiglia has variously worked alongside Junior Wells, Sandra Hall, Aron Burton, Pinetop Perkins, Melvin Taylor, Sugar Blue, Phil Guy, Ronnie Earl, Billy Boy Arnold, Ronnie Baker Brooks, John Primer, Lurrie Bell, Jerry Portnoy, Larry McCray, Eddy Clearwater and Otis Clay.
Eddie James Lusk, Jr. known professionally as Professor Eddie Lusk was an American Chicago blues musician. An ordained minister, Lusk carved out a successful career in the blues and variously worked with Luther Allison, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Johnson, Koko Taylor, Phil Guy, Jimmy Dawkins, Sunnyland Slim, Michael Coleman, Fenton Robinson, Syl Johnson, and Otis Rush.
Live in Chicago is a live album by the American blues musician Luther Allison, recorded in Chicago in 1995 and Nebraska in 1997 and released by the Alligator label in 1999.
Matthew Skoller is an American Chicago blues harmonicist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has released five albums, as well as recording his harmonica playing on other musicians work, including John Primer, Lurrie Bell, Koko Taylor, H-Bomb Ferguson, Toronzo Cannon, Bernard Allison, Larry Garner, Big Daddy Kinsey, Big Time Sarah, Michael Coleman, and Harvey Mandel. On stage, he has supplied part of the backing to Big Time Sarah, Jimmy Rogers, and Deitra Farr.
Ina Forsman is a Finnish blues and blues rock singer-songwriter. She has been involved in the recording of six albums since 2013.
Across the Water is an album by the American musician Bernard Allison, released in 2000. Allison supported the album with a North American tour. It was Allison's second album to be released in the United States.
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