Burton Garr – Home of the Blues

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Home of the Blues

I’ve been chomping at the bit to get the word out on this articulate, contemporary Louisiana blues man.
There must be something in the water that runs between Memphis and Baton Rouge, ‘cuz The B. Garr Band has that geographical musical terrain covered like the felt on a Brunswick table.

Slick Southern soul is the main course. A master re-interpreter of the work of the great Southern blue-eyed (and brown-eyed!) soul pioneers from Cosimo Matassa to Rick Hall to William Bell to the late, great Tom Dowd, Garr commands respect onstage in Memphis, the Crescent City, or any point in between.

This soulful stringer is barreled up like a Gatling gun, with some of the finest session players below the 38th parallel. From the Allmans, there’s Johnny Neel on organ, and representing the Neville brothers, Shane Theriot on guitar, and the list goes on. Garr can do it all. But why layer it up when you have the best in the business alongside of you?!

All but one of the 12 songs are the work of B. Garr, and as the great and present Charlie Musselwhite said, “There ain’t nothing but ‘A’ – and I mean capital ‘A’ – sides on this one.”

Southern funk and soul at its best!



This article originally appeared in VG‘s June ’04 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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