About
Known for his rough and tumble blues sound, punctuated by elegant yet blistering guitar and gravelly, growling vocals, Lurie Bell was raised up with blues and nurtured by the blues.
Lurrie’s father was famed harmonica virtuoso Carey Bell, who played with Muddy Waters and other post-World War II Chicago blues greats. The younger Bell recalls that their Chicago home was filled with “musicians around … all the time,” including legends like Big Walter Horton, Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Clearwater. “One day I picked up one of his guitars and I taught myself how to play,” Lurrie explains. “I learned by ear. Something inside of me told me: this what you have to do in your life.”
As a child, Bell was sent to live in Mississippi and Alabama with his grandparents. They were devoted churchgoers. “I listened to a lot of choirs and quartets,” says Bell. Gospel informed his early music impressions.
Back in Chicago in the 1970s he began recording with his father, and backing established stars, such as Willie Dixon and Koko Taylor. But his prodigal promise briefly flickered; personal demons knocked him off stage for a decade. Even in the depths, “the blues was there for me,” he says. In the mid-1990s, Bell re-emerged with a succession of four highly acclaimed records.
In 2007 Bell launched his own label, Aria B.G. Records. Triumphs followed. Living Blues Magazine’s Critics’ Poll has three times named Bell Most Outstanding Guitar Player and Male Blues Artist of the Year. He was a 2009 Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues Recording and won a 2013 Prix du Blues award from the prestigious French L’Academie du Jazz. His latest album, Blues in My Soul, is an homage to the roots of Chicago-style traditional guitar blues. He has, to date, appeared on more than 50 recordings, and toured the globe.