Recent CD

Louisiana Red
“No Turn On Red” 2005
www.hightone.com
www.bobcorritore.com

Louisiana Red is one of a handful of blues musicians of his generation who are still performing, and one of the great international blues ambassadors. He's a master guitarist who plays acoustic, electric and slide accompanied by intense, expressive vocals.

His playing encompasses the Delta to Chicago migration in a way that is powerful, raw and personal. The compelling lyrics he pens and delivers with such honesty set him apart. Iverson Minter (aka Louisiana Red) was born in Bessemer, Alabama, on March 23,1932. His mother died of pneumonia a week after his birth, and his father was killed when he was five years old, reportedly by the Klu Klux Klan. He eventually ended up in an orphanage in New Orleans where he stayed for three years until rescued by his grandmother and taken to her home in Pittsburgh. It was she who gave him his first guitar a few years later, and he honed his skills while playing for tips on the streets of Pittsburgh. He recorded under various pseudonyms before settling on "Louisiana Red," a nickname apparently derived from his love of Louisiana hot sauce. For several years during its heyday in the 50's, he was part of the Detroit blues scene, playing with the likes of Little Walter, Eddie "Guitar" Burns, John Lee Hooker and Eddie Kirkland. He recorded many times during these years, including some excellent recordings for Atlantic. In the 60's, his "Red's Dream," sold over a million copies. During the 1980's, when the demand for traditional blues in the U.S. seemed at an all-time low, Red moved to Germany. It wasn't until the summer of 1998 that Red returned for a brief tour in the U.S. where his performances were greeted with great enthusiasm. The current blues scene in the U.S. and Europe is characterized by a wide variety of styles and musicians. However, as the years go passing by there are fewer and fewer artists left that were active during the formative years of blues music, those who participated in the development of the music.

Thus, it is all the more important and cause for celebration that there are still artists such as Louisiana Red.

Louisiana Red has lived the Blues. And Louisiana Red not only plays the Blues, he lives it through his guitar and his singing. Strongly influenced by Muddy Waters, Lightnin‘ Hopkins and Arthur Crudup, he has long ago found his own voice, his own style, his own form of expression.

When Red performs, the songs are often only launching pad for expressing his immediate feelings in the almost lost tradition of spontaneous composition that goes back to the original Delta Blues artists an even further to the West-African griot bards.

In a career spanning over half a century, Louisiana Red has played with just about every major bluesman you can name, some of the most memorable encounters being his jams with B.B.King and Muddy Waters.

But it doesn’t matter who he plays with or where he appears - Louisiana Red brings the same intensitiy and enthusiasm to every stage he appears on, whether in front of 10,000 people at a festival or 100 people in an intimate club.

Louisiana Red’s albums have been called masterpieces by critics, and in 1983 he won a W.C. Handy Award as best traditional blues artist. After living in Germany for 20 years, he has made a several triumphant comeback tours in the United States.

But if you ask Red about it, he won’t tell you much about his success. He’ll much rather talk about his latest CD project, about a new song or a new guitar lick. Because Louisiana Red is constantly creating, always searching für another expression of his blues. For once, the hyperbole ist justified: Louisiana Red is the Blues.

Recent CD “No Turn On Red” recorded and produced by long-time friend and harmonica player, Bob Corritore. This album features the stirring "September 11th Blues" (2005, Hightone Records).