[2010-03-02] Guitar Shorty "Bare Knuckle" (Alligator)

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Feb 27, 2010 6:55 pm

Review
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''But it's another great blues record, one in an ongoing series, and if you love to hear stinging blues guitar in the tradition of Albert King, Lonnie Mack, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, you can hardly do better....He's called Guitar Shorty for a reason. He's a guitar god, and he simply unleashes one great solo after another.''

The Chicago Reader
"Guitar Shorty is a battle-scarred hard-ass. He slices off his phrases and notes with homicidal fury. He is among the highest-energy blues entertainers on the scene."

Texas Music Magazine
"Axebuster extraordinaire Guitar Shorty is an old-school guitar showman. He plays with technique and flash, without ever sacrificing the passion. He's a blues-rock hero."

DownBeat
"Guitar Shorty's music is a funky, boisterous buffet of off-the-wall blues fun."

GuitarOne
"Be prepared for a mighty surprise if you are tired of the same old blues and have never heard Guitar Shorty rip. With his harmonically saturated tone, soaring sustain, lethal licks and heavyweight blues-rock grooves, Shorty is not to be overlooked."

From The Artist
"Willie Dixon was a huge influence on me and my singing," Shorty remembers. "Willie helped me find my own singing voice and showed me how to tell a story with my words."

Jimi Hendrix loved Shorty's playing, and confessed that in 1961 and 1962 he would go AWOL from his Army base in order to catch Shorty's area performances, picking up licks and ideas. "I'd see Jimi at the clubs," Shorty recalls. "He'd stay in the shadows, watching me. I hear my licks in "Purple Haze" and "Hey Joe." He told me the reason he started setting his guitar on fire was because he couldn't do the back flips like I did."

About The Artist
Guitar Shorty is a giant in the blues world. Credited with influencing Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, Guitar Shorty has been thrilling audiences for five decades.

Over the years, Shorty has performed with blues and R&B stars like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Guitar Slim and T-Bone Walker. He started playing with these legends while still in his teens and recorded a handful of singles for a variety of labels during the first 30 years of his career. After decades of paying his dues, it took a tour of UK to establish Shorty's fame in his home country.

Born David William Kearney on September 8, 1939 in Houston, Texas he was raised in Kissimmee, Florida by his grandmother. He began playing guitar as a young boy, excited by B.B. King, Guitar Slim, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker. His first lessons came from his uncle, but his grandmother hired a teacher for him. After a move to Tampa when he was 17, Kearney won a slot as a featured guitarist & vocalist in the local orchestra led by Walter Johnson. Being younger--and shorter--than the rest of the band, a club owner bestowed the name Guitar Shorty on him, and it stuck.

After a particularly strong performance in Florida, Willie Dixon, approached Shorty and said, "I like what you're doing. You've got something different. I gotta get you in the studio." A few weeks later Shorty was in Chicago and, backed by Otis Rush on second guitar, he cut his first single for Chicago's famed Cobra Records in 1957.

His fortunes continued to rise when Ray Charles hired the him as a member of his road band. While touring Florida with Ray, Shorty met one of his idols--Guitar Slim, famous for his hit "Things That I Used To Do" as well as for his wildman stage antics. Slim's manager offered Shorty the opening slot on the guitarist's upcoming tour and he followed his hero to New Orleans.

Inspired by Slim, Shorty began incorporating some of the older artist's athletic showmanship into his own performances. Before long, he was doing somersaults & flips on stage. In New Orleans, he joined Sam Cooke's touring band and eventually ended up in Los Angeles.

Shorty moved to Seattle in 1960 and through his friend, Marsha, met her stepbrother Jimi. Jimi Hendrix loved Shorty's playing, and confessed that in 1961-62 he would go AWOL from his Army base in order to catch Shorty's area performances.

Guitar Shorty moved back to L.A. in 1971. He opened for blues stars who passed through town, including Little Milton, B.B. King, Lowell Fulson, Johnny Copeland and more. In 1978 he even performed on (and won) The Gong Show, playing guitar while standing on his head.

He appeared, playing himself, in the 1990 Tommy Chong film Far Out Man. A major story in Living Blues magazine brought him even more attention and led to his first British tour. While there, he cut an album for the JSP label. Released in 1991, My Way Or The Highway created a sensation among U.S. fans and it completely revitalized Shorty's career in the U.S.

The New Orleans-based Black Top label signed him and released three albums (Topsy Turvy, Get Wise To Yourself and Roll Over, Baby) during the 90s. In 2001 he recorded I Go Wild for Evidence Records, produced by Brian Brinkerhoff.

In 2004 Brinkerhoff and Jesse Harms brought a newly-recorded album to Alligator Records. This Alligator debut, Watch Your Back, became his best-received, best-selling album to date. His 2006 follow-up, We The People, won the coveted Blues Music Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year

With Bare Knuckle and his one-two punch of blistering guitar work and passionate vocals, his combination of lyrically deep songs and one-of-a-kind live shows, Guitar Shorty proves again that he is one of today's true, undisputed heavyweight champions of the blues.

Product Description
Legendary axeman GUITAR SHORTY is more popular now than at any time in his storied 50-year career. One of the best-known names in blues, his last album, 2007's We The People, won the Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year. Bare Knuckle is another heavy dose of Guitar Shorty blues. An explosive guitarist and a dynamite blues showman, Guitar Shorty still performs over 100 dates per year at clubs and festivals across the U.S.

1. Please Mr. President
2. Too Hard To Love You
3. The Sting
4. Slow Burn
5. True Lies
6. Texas Women
7. Too Late
8. Neverland
9. Betrayed
10. Get Off
11. Bad Memory
12. Temporary Man

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0034782U6/?tag=imwan-20

[2010-03-02] Guitar Shorty "Bare Knuckle" (Alligator)

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