Larry Burton
Evansville, Indiana, United States | SELF
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
As Band Leader
• Hustler’s Paradise, The Larry Burton Band, Brambus Records
• Live at PJ’S Blues Stop, The Larry Burton Band, Babylon Records
• The Blues Just Stay The Same, The Larry Burton Band, Babylon Records
With Other Artists
• Slide Guitar Blues, Larry Burton, Icehouse Records
• A Cold Shot Of Good Whiskey Blues, Larry Burton & Richard Waters, Taxim Records
• Tracks, Burton Brothers, B & B Music
• Past, Present & Future, Aron Burton, Earwig Records
• Good Blues to You, Aron Burton, Delmark Records
• Having a Fit Over Your Love, Chicago Beau, GBW Records
• Ice Pickin’, Albert Collins, Alligator Records
• Live in Japan, Albert Collins, Alligator Records
• Don’t Lose Your Cool, Albert Collins, Alligator Records
• Live at the New Morning Festival, Albert Collins, New Morning Records
Discography (continued)
• Friends, Donkey Biters, ELA Music Group
• Daddy, When Is Mama Coming Home?, Big Jack Johnson, Earwig Records
• Living Chicago Blues Anthology, Volume 1, Jimmy Johnson, Alligator Record
• North, South, Jimmy Johnson, Delmark Records
• Casey Jones, Casey Jones, Air Wax Records
• San Francisco ‘83, Albert King, Fantasy Records
• Live in Japan, Johnny Littlejohn & Carey Bell, Yupitero Records
• Sweet Little Angel, Johnny Littlejohn, Black & Blue Records
• So Called Friends, Johnny Littlejohn, Roster Records
• Shades of Blue, Lou Rawls, Philadelpia International Records
• Fed Up With This Music, A. C. Reed, Ice Cube Records
• Living Chicago Blues Anthology, Volume 4, A.C. Reed, Alligator Records
• Night Flight, Fenton Robinson, Alligator Records
• Big Ken Smith, Ken Smith, Cold Wind Records
• Birds Nest on the Ground, Carl Snyder, Lost World Music
• The Highway Is My Home, Percy Strother, Black Magic Records
• Why Don’t You So Right?, Jimmy Lawrence & Chicago Carl Snyder, Lost World Records
• Less Sense Than Logic, Blaise Delecroix, Orchard Records
Photos
Bio
Larry Burton is the complete 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 has also 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 & Future (Earwig) 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 release, Slide Guitar Blues, along with Johnny Winter, Sonny Landreth, Elmore James.
He has played on five albums that were nominated for Grammy Awards. Is that qualified
or what?
Naturally, all the other blues artists would have been happy if Larry had just 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 Hustlers’ 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,
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 at PJ’S Blues Stop” and has just been released on the Babylon 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 an evening that you’ll never forget.
Links
