This issue marks the launch of our new digital edition of Living Blues. The print edition of LB will remain the same great magazine you’ve always loved, but now we will be offering an online edition that you can look at on your desktop, laptop, reader, or even smart phone. We are so excited about the digital launch that we are offering this issue (April/May #218) FREE. Go to www.LivingBlues.com and check it out. Just click on the cover and join us in the digital world! If you like what you see you can subscribe with our special introductory price of $15.00. Special thanks and congratulations go out to Gary Cunningham of the United Kingdom for being the first digital subscriber to Living Blues.
In this issue we revisit one of blues’ most popular artists, Joe Louis Walker. Walker has been in LB several times before, but his career continues to expand and his recent signing with Alligator Records should make his new CD one of the most successful of his long career. Milwaukee-based bluesman Lee Gates has been a favorite of mine since I heard his first recording on the Music Maker label. Gates is the cousin of Albert Collins, and his strong, aggressive guitar attack and tone can’t help but remind you of him. Gates is as real as they get, and if you haven’t heard his music you owe it to yourself to give it a listen.
The young California guitarist Kirk Fletcher is really coming into his own. A highly skilled guitarist, Fletcher is an in-demand sideman and session man, but with three releases under his belt now he is ready to step out on his own. Roscoe Chenier is the cousin of legendary zydeco master Clifton Chenier. For over 50 years now Roscoe has been one of the leading guitarists in the Lafayette/Opelousas area of south central Louisiana. This issue also features our annual Living Blues Festival Guide.
It has been a mild winter across most of the United States. As I sit here writing this on the last day of winter, it is supposed to hit 85 degrees today. Heck, it’s been over 80 in Chicago five days in a row…in winter. But it has been a cold winter in the blues world. We have lost a remarkable number of blues musicians this winter, and for true fans of the blues it has been a sad time. Our latest loss is of one of the most unique and creative men in the blues, Louisiana Red, who died on February 25, 2012. Iverson Minter was born in 1932 in Bessemer, Alabama, and first recorded for Chess in 1949. He recorded over 50 albums through the years, but as he moved to Germany in 1981, many U.S. blues fans never got to see him live. A full obituary will appear in LB #219. The LB family also lost one of our own a few weeks ago. Maria McGowan, who worked at the office in the mid-1990s, died on February 20, 2012. She was 43.
Brett J. Bonner
Editor
