Luther Allison

                Luther, Luther, Luther! what do you say about the ball o' fire who's burned his way through every blues festival and every blues and jazz festival ever to wear fair Ann Arbor's scarf? The various writers faced with the task of rehashing the facts of Luther Allison's musical history and describing his onstage charisma for previous programs have showered superlatives on him like cavemen with rocks tempting to bring down the wooly Mastodon - "devastating", "soulful", "impassioned", "a great showman", "brilliant", "a dynamite crowd pleaser".

   It's all true and yet the words don't give you the actual stuff. I wish you could plug this program into a nearby hole in the wall and just listen to any of his live Festival performances, but I've my own sugar words to sprinkle.

    Jimmy Dawkins tells the story of Luther's first steps - Luther Allison come into the picture about the middle of 1957. I needed a bass player and I met Luther Allison walkin' on Ogden Avenue [in Chicago] there strummin' his big body type guitar, you know, and I asked 

him was he interested in learning to play and he said, 'yes'. So I told him I needed a bass player and he said 'OK' you know. 'Cause he couldn't play the guitar and he wanted to try and learn it. So he played bass for me for a few months but then he wanted to play guitar. One record that really got him on, BB King played a thine 'I Got A Whole Lot Of Lovin' For You' and he wanted to learn how to play that lead part. So we got a record and I showed him how you could do it by listenin' to the record. So he went on. He studied for weeks and weeks until he got that. That's what started him with the guitar and made me lose a bass player."

    After the ex-bass player left Dawkins he began to hang out on Chicago's West Side, sitting in with Freddie King's band many times and eventually taking it over. He was nineteen at the time and was gigging at the Peppermint Lounge and Figaros, at the Alex and the L. and A. when the cops still should have been bouncing him for being underage. He spent his spare time jamming all around the windy city scene with the late great Magic Sam and the still kickin' Mighty Joe Young.

   Ann Arbor's first opportunity to dig Luther live came in April of 1969 when he performed at  a promotional concert for the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival. Apparently he fried the hometown folks during the course of a concentrated four-hour barrage of raw blues power. He did it again four months later and by the time the second Blues Festival rolled around, Luther's set was an expected high point. Writer Dave Marsh described the action - "Appearing in a Bobby Seale t-shirt (almost a mark of his youth), Allison smoked his way through an incredible set, then brought Texas whiz Johnny winter on stage with him for an inter-racial jam that delighted everyone present, no matter how purist their tastes. Luther proceeded to cook up a storm throughout the weekend, playing everywhere there was a hole in the program, not out of some mad exhibitionist desire for ego gratification but rather for the joy of it".

   Ever since that first Ann Arbor appearance Luther's popularity has been increasing monstrously, especially on college campuses. The initial fiare of his success was considered a real phenomenon in the music world. Though Delmark Records helped spread the gospel with two good but not-widely distributed LP's, it was Luther himself, through his own dedication, toil, and onstage artistry, who made people take notice.

   Some of these people were Motown Records, who signed Luther up in 1973 and for whom he's recorded two albums to date. During his stay with Motown, the lowdown, pure blues side of ther has been altered and he plays as much electrifying rock as gut-grinding blues these days.

    Luther has been bringing his blues and his rock to the city of Ann Arbor with increasing frequency since his early Festival appearances. Last year he played three times at the regrettably since-deceased Primo Show Bar, and jammed on several occasions late nights at The Blind Pig. All these performances were played to packed audiences, and the air was thick with good, high-energy vibes flowing from the stage to the folks and back again.

   Enough words. Whatever you decide to call it, Luther's music still burns with the fire of his deep soul. . . Listen and decide for yourself why Luther Allison remains the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival favorite year after cookin' year.

                          ----Bill Adler