Larry Garner: Once Upon The Blues



RUF 1044

More about Larry Garner

10.00 Euro




Release date

2/2000

Release Notes

For a man who came to the blues relatively late in life from a day job and family life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Larry Garner wanted no time earning a worldwide reputation as one terrific bluesman. Maybe his roundabout, diverse route is a part of why he brings such freshness of vision along with a solid all-around grounding as a musician, poet and storyteller. The combination is certainly paying off. Larry is headlining his latest European tour as these notes are being written. He's spent the last decade filling his passport up with stamps from distant lands, recording highly regarded CDs which are already being reissued as his star continues to ascend, and establishing himself as one of the leading songwriting, performing and entertaining voices of the blues.

Coming into prominence in the 1990s, Larry's music has crystallized into what modern blues should be. It embodies timeless values, informed by the up-to-the-minute world in which his songs are created. His blues are as contemporary as they get, with energy and hipness to spare, but his music doesn't have to go and stay over the top to make his point, and it has room to breathe. Larry Garner exemplifies the best of the long lineage of the blues in at least one vital way: his songs tell stories the average listener can accept joyfully as truths that touch everyday lives and raise a smile and a "been there". His muse is running constantly, behind the steering wheel, on the bandstand and throughout daily living. Wisdom, acute powers of observation and wryness complement a compelling musical package; we'll leave it to the listener to find the guitar lick in "I Ain't The One" that makes Larry jump up and shout every time he hears it. A superb sense of timing that enables Larry to sing a lot of words without tripping over them doesn't hurt either.

For "Once Upon The Blues", Larry took a full project's worth of deep observations about his life and everyone else's life, his road and an encore from local Keyboard stalwart Ernest Williamson into a Memphis studio to present his current set of blues stories before finishing touches were applied in Chicago. Everyone had a great time during the recording processing and the music has a good time feeling which suggests that for once, maybe getting there was half the fun.

Fortunately every listener can share the fun, because this CD is a stunner. Whether one loves the blues for the virtuosity, the grooves, the singing or the songwriting, "Once Upon The Blues" provides ample rewards. It has all the honesty and power of the blues, blending traditional and contemporary influences and a noteworthy personal vision in a way that shows the blues isn't a limitation, but a broad and potent palette for a prodigious accomplishment by a storyteller whose power to transform perceptiveness on this CD was a rare treat; we trust the listener will share that feeling on the way to hitting the "Repeat All" button. Relate, appreciate and celebrate that once upon the blues, Larry Garner came along to show us what promise and vitality this beloved music has as we enter the new millennium. If this is a preview, many more happy stories lie ahead!

Dick Shurman, co-producer Larry Garner

Press quotes

He is perhaps the most talented blues songwriter alive today, one of the top five bluesmen on the planet ...(Real Blues #14, 1998)

Garner's mellifluous lead guitar chops are akin to B.B. King's and are relatively free from rock influences ...Standing Room Only is an extremely musical and imminently listenable blues disc that should bring the name Larry Garner to a large audience. (Blues Revue, Dec.'98)

On the strength of the lyrics and Garner's more than competent playing, Standing Room Only is a solid R&B recording.
(Cadence, Oct.'98)

If you haven't discovered the blues brilliance of Larry Garner, then you should jump on this bandwaggon. These are blues for today, good to the last note stuff ...
(Big City Blues, Sept. '98)

Larry's an undiscovered treasure larking in the bayous. "Dr.Blues" himself thinks that you should give him a spin. It's 48 minutes of superior blues!
(Backyard Blues, Long Island Blues Society)

In a decade when veterans and youngbloods alike rely too heavily on overdone standards and cover material, Garner churns out clever, challenging, uncompromising and thoroughly contemporary songs...
(Living Blues #143)


Tracklist

  1. Where Blues Turn Back
  2. Slower Traffic Keep Right
  3. A Real Gambling Woman
  4. That Was Her Dance
  5. I Won’t Tell Your Mama
  6. I Ain’t The One
  7. Virus Blues
  8. Edward Had A Shotgun
  9. If She Tells You No
  10. The Muddy River
  11. Klepto
  12. Nothing But Live