Larry Burton

Larry is the compete package–a great guitarist, a soulful blues singer and a creative songwriter. Larry’s resumé reads like a who’s who of the blues.  He has played in support of Albert King, Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter, Koko Taylor, Little Milton , Son Seals, Otis Rush, Jimmy Johnson, Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Witherspoon, Sugar Blue, Kim Wilson and Champion Jack Dupree, just to name a few.

Larry also has played on over two dozen albums, including the great Albert King album San Francisco ’83 and Lou Rawls’ experimental Shades of Blue.  He’s on A.C. Reed’s iconoclastic Fed Up With This Music.  He’s on four Collins albums, two of them recorded live in Switzerland and Japan.  He’s on three albums with Johnny Littlejohn and two with Jimmy Johnson.  He’s featured on Past, Present And Future (Earwig Music) by his brother Aron Burton, the well known blues singer and bass player.  He was also co-leader of the Burton Brothers Blues Band when they cut their album released in Europe on the B&B Label.  Larry is also spotlighted on the Icehouse Records release, Slide Guitar Blues, along with Johnny Winter, Sonny Landreth and Elmore James.

He has played on five albums that were nominated for Grammy Awards.

Naturally, all the other blues artist would have been happy if Larry had continued to back them up with his outstanding rhythm work–he plays full, precise chords that are fingered so cleanly and played so tenderly, you can hear every note–and his fully developed, fiery solos.  But his ability to front a band blossomed on one of his European tours and led to the release of his own first album Hustler’s Paradise on the Brambus Label.  It is chock full of scorching guitar and features all original songs by Larry Burton.  They explore the nuances of the man/woman relationship that is the source of so much of the world’s blues–and the medicine for it too.

Larry’s blues are as real as you can get.  He was born in Coldwater, Mississippi in 1951, and lived briefly in Memphis before coming to Chicago in 1956, where he grew up on the West Side and listened to Big Bill Hill’s pioneering blues radio show.  He started playing bass, then guitar with a group of high school buddies that included Tony Llorens, later the producer of several Albert King albums; in fact, everybody in the group wound up working with Albert at one time or another.  But they weren’t playing the blues at those sock hops and “Las Vegas Nights,” they were playing the latest hits by James Brown, Wilson Pickett or Sam and Dave–not to mention the Rascals, The Beatles and especially Jimi Hendrix, who remains one of Larry’s favorites.  It was in 1967 that his brother Willie, who played saxophone, introduced Larry to the local club scene, and it’s been a steady diet of blues ever since.

Larry has a new album that he recorded in Niederglatt, Switzerland. It’s called “Live @ PJ’S Blues Stop” and has just been released on the Babylon Records Label.  When it comes to your record store pick up on it.  And when Larry brings his blues to your town, go see him; it’s sure to be and evening that you’ll never forget.

Larry now lives in Evansville, Indiana.

Biography from Larry Burton Blues Band   https://www.reverbnation.com/larryburtonbluesband