Benefit for Earl Gilliam Let's make this one of the biggest benefits ever.
10/4/2009 2:00 PM at BLUES BENEFIT FOR EARL & CARRIE JEAN @ The Big Easy
5731 Kirby, Houston, Texas 77005
Cost: $5 An extraordinary line-up of local Blues legends and friends to benefit Earl and Carrie Jean, including Texas Johnny Brown, Trudy Lynn and I.J. Gosey. The music starts at 2pm and goes ’til 7pm. Fantastic raffle items, BBQ, good times! Come on down!Earl Gilliam Legendary Blues Musician
5731 Kirby, Houston, Texas 77005
Cost: $5 An extraordinary line-up of local Blues legends and friends to benefit Earl and Carrie Jean, including Texas Johnny Brown, Trudy Lynn and I.J. Gosey. The music starts at 2pm and goes ’til 7pm. Fantastic raffle items, BBQ, good times! Come on down!Earl Gilliam Legendary Blues Musician
Lauded as the "best Blues organist alive”, 79-year old Texas Bluesman Earl Gilliam has been smokin’ the house with his original Gulf Coast Blues sound for the past 60 years. A living legend of Houston's vital and historic Blues scene of the 40's and 50's, Earl has played both out front with his own band and as a sideman with some of the best, including: Sam Lightnin' Hopkins, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Albert Collins, Johnny Clyde Copeland, Joe Guitar Hughes, T-Bone Walker, Little Joe Washington and - in the really early days - with Goree Carter, Big Joe Turner, Grady Gaines, Nappy Brown, Roy Brown, Jerry Butler, Percy Mayfield, Hop Wilson, Lester Williams and many others. And then there were the ladies: Earl has graced the stage with such luminous Blueswomen as Big Mama Thornton, Luvenia Lewis, Lavelle White and Miss Trudy Lynn.
In 1955, Earl was invited to record his own music with Lucian Davis on Sarg Records, Willie Nelson and Doug Sahm’s first label. There were only two Black artists on that label – Earl and saxophonist O.S. Grant. He also recorded on Ivory Lee Semien’s historic label Ivory Records. Earl wrote and recorded what today are considered classic Blues tunes: “Wrong Doin’ Woman”, “Don’t Make Me Late Baby”, “Nobody’s Blues”, “Just You and I”, “Petite Baby” and more.
Earl is a well-respected band leader who held forth at such historic Houston Blues haunts as The Hamilton Inn, Shady's Playhouse and the Club Matinee's famed monthly talent shows – which blew in such young promising talent as Little Richard and Bobby Blue Bland. Earl was one of very few musicians who could play with Lightnin' Hopkins because of Hopkins' unique sense of timing. In the 60's and 70's, they occasionally played as a duo in the region. Earl not only plays a mean organ and piano, but he also squeezed on a 50 lb. accordion in Clifton Chenier's band. If you talk to Earl long enough and over a period of time, he'll drop some of the best authentic regional Blues history on you. He's the real deal!
These days, Earl tours on occasion and plays regularly close to home. His favorite gigs are at the Houston blues joint The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club.
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