C. J. Walsh

Lurrie Bell

Black-Eyed Sally’s Hartford, Connecticut USA

January 31, 2020

View: Rickety barstool 20 feet from the stage

In the ‘80s the common problems of an itinerant blues musician led to a lost decade for Lurrie Bell. A life he saw firsthand from his dad, the superb harmonica player, Carey Bell, who was in Muddy Waters’ band. Having corralled his demons, he’s clear-eyed now and did his dad proud with a brooding version of Carey’s Last Night. Most of Lurrie’s set was drawn from the Blues Founding Fathers -BB King’s Sweet Little Angel and Sonny Boy Williamson’s Eyesight To The Blind.

 Though seated and hunched over his Gibson 335 throughout, he took a romp through Kansas City and breezed through a host of standards, with a feisty Don’t Lie To Me and Muddy’s She’s 19 Years Old. As they say, the way he picks it it’s never gonna heal.

Muddy Waters’ music was a touchstone throughout, Bell wound up with Got My Mojo Working. Essentially the blues as they were meant to be played.

Published in Record Collector Magazine online