First Time I heard Lurrie  | Back

Another raid on the archives produced these notes about the first time I
heard Lurrie Bell at Rosa's, on Tuesday, May 6, 1997.

    I saw Lurrie Bell with the Slack Band last night at Rosa's and he is a
real kick in the ass.  Lurrie is the son of harp great Carey Bell.
Tuesday night at Rosa's is usually Melvin Taylor's gig, and the Slack
Band is Taylor's usual outfit, but they managed to fit themselves to
Lurrie's eccentric style quite nicely. Mama Rosa told me that Lurrie
used to play with Billy Branch.

    I hesitate to say this, because I wasn't around in the fifties, but I
got a sense of what it might have been like to see Magic Sam, Elmore
James, a young Otis Rush, or even Muddy Waters during that period, when
country blues was being transformed into this new thing right before
your eyes. Lurrie Bell exudes something that gives me a sense of that
time, place and music.

    A couple of highlights were a harp-less "My Babe," which takes balls to
even attempt. The guitar runs filled in nicely for the missing harp
parts. I laughed out loud at the way he handled a request for "Mojo." He
and the band performed it extremely well, with their own little twists
(very spooky bass part, for example).  The funny thing was, he wouldn't
stop. He just kept the final chorus going on forever.

by Charles K. Cowdery
 
 

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