Guitar shorty

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Guitar Shorty at the Ottawa Bluesfest 2008

Guitar Shorty (* 8. September 1939 in Houston , Texas as David William Kearney ) is an American blues guitarist , singer and songwriter .

biography

Born in Houston, Kearney grew up in Kissimmee, Florida, where he played guitar at a young age and had his own band. At 17, he was nicknamed "Guitar Shorty" while performing with his band in Tampa Bay . For a year he played in Ray Charles' band . In 1957 he recorded his first single You Don't Treat Me Right under the direction of Willie Dixon after Dixon saw him with the Walter Johnson Orchestra. He then played in Guitar Slim's band and moved to New Orleans .

In New Orleans, Shorty also performed with his own band at the Dew Drop Inn, often with guest musicians such as T-Bone Walker , Big Joe Turner and Little Richard . At 19 he went to the US West Coast, where he played guitar for Sam Cooke . At his own concerts on the west coast, he met his wife Marcia, a half-sister of Jimi Hendrix . Hendrix called Guitar Shorty one of his most important role models.

Guitar Shorty continued to perform and released a few singles. In the 1970s he worked as a mechanic and only played in the evenings and on weekends. It wasn't until 1985 that his first album On the Rampage was released . In 1991 he went on tour in the UK for the first time ; while he took with Otis Grand on his second album My Way or the Highway , for which he received a Handy Award . Then he got a record deal with Black Top Records .

Topsy Turvy , his first album on Black Top, was released in 1993. After two more albums, Black Top broke up in 1999. Guitar Shorty went to Evidence Music, where 2001 I Go Wild! came out. The next two albums came out on Alligator Records and were both featured on Billboard's "Top Blues Albums".

In 2006 a "Best of Guitar Shorty" album was released. In 2010 Alligator released the album Bare Knuckle . Guitar Shorty, who has lived in Los Angeles since 2012 , is still active and also performs in Europe, most recently in 2017 with the Italian blues band Morblus under the direction of Roberto Morbioli .

Discography

  • 1989: On the Rampage (Olive Branch)
  • 1991: My Way or the Highway (JSP)
  • 1993: Topsy Turvy (Black Top)
  • 1995: Get Wise to Yourself (Black Top)
  • 1996: Blues Is All Right (Janblues)
  • 1996: Billie Jean Blues (Collectables)
  • 1998: Roll Over, Baby (Black Top)
  • 2001: I Go Wild! (Evidence)
  • 2004: Watch Your Back ( Alligator Records )
  • 2006: We the People (Alligator)
  • 2006: The Best of Guitar Shorty: The Long and Short of It (Shout! Factory)
  • 2010: How Blue Can You Get (Janblues)
  • 2010: Bare Knuckle (Alligator)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Allmusic, see web links
  2. ↑ Biography on the homepage of Guitar Shorty, see web links
  3. ↑ Biography on the Alligator Records website, see web links
  4. ↑ Randy Lewis: Guitar Shorty: 'The real music is he Blues' . LA Times, June 23, 2012 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Guitar shorty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kearney, David William (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Houston , Texas