Not only Solberg and his group were Allison's regular touring band, but this talented guitarist also co-wrote much of the Allison's repertoire during these periods and brought his skills as arranger and producer. In the second chapter of their collaboration, both musicians released three albums considered by many as the best Chicago blues albums of the 1990s : “Soul Fixin’ Man” (1994, also released as “Bad Love), “Blue Streak” (1995), and “Reckless” (1997).
Between his two stretches of work with Allison, he played and toured with many blues musicians and bands among whom John Lee Hooker, the Legendary Blues Band, the Nighthawks, Elvin Bishop...
6 : the number of guests featured on the band's albums (bassist Little David, guitarists Danny Caron & Rusty Zinn on "Indigo Swing", percussionist Robin Tolleson & trumpeter Scott Steen on “Red Light!”). 14 : the number of tracks on each album.
That's what happened to me recently. The name's Cardell Boyette (sometimes spelled Cordell), a patronymic exhaling the nice flavor of his native Louisiana, but he's also known as Louisiana “Guitar” Red (the “Guitar” nickname being essential to distinguish him from Louisiana Red aka Iverson Minter).
Born in Louisiana in 1928, Boyette learned to play piano in his youth before switching later to guitar and moving to Los Angeles in the early 1950s or 1960s (info sources vary). There he entered a top blues school : he played in particular behind Lowell Fulson, T-Bone Walker, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Tina Turner, J.D. Nicholson or Ray Agee… He even recorded a single as Louisiana “Guitar” Red with George "Harmonica" Smith in the late 1960s.
The repertoire, all chosen from famous bluesmen from the Windy City like the legendary Willie Dixon, Pops Staples, J.B. Lenoir, Hip Linkchain, Andrew Brown, Little Richard…, is expressing Bell's sorrow, particularly after the untimely passing, in January 2007, of his beloved companion, photographer and artist Susan Greenberg whose caring help in Bell's recovery off his severe addictions was so essential, and just a few months later, in May 2007, of his father, the great blues harmonicist Carey Bell.
► Get the album at the usual place...
