Running Reckless

" One on one with the Handy champ. "

By Norm Shaw

Luther Allison is a remarkably easy-going guy. He's one of those people you can ask, "How's it going?" and get a 30-minute answer.

He's honest, open and opinionated. In a rambling phone interview from his home in Paris, Allison talked about his career, his new record, life in Paris and his future.

His new record, Reckless , hit the streets March 25. He kicks off a U.S. tour the week of the W.C. Handy Awards and the Beale Street Music Festival. His career has ebbed and flowed, but the past three years have seen his star rise to its highest. Last year, he won five Handy Awards after being nominated for six. The only reason he didn't win the sixth was because he was nominated twice in the same category.

This year brings five more nominations, following the release of Where Have You Been: Live in Montreaux , a collection of live performances at the Montreaux Jazz Festival spanning 20 years. He's expected to win at least two, possibly all five. He makes no predictions, though, to BlueSpeak editor Norm Shaw.

Last year you swept the Handy Awards, any predictions this year?

No. I'm so proud we got an invitation to come back down there for these things, and the show itself. You know, it's great for me as a meeting point because I hadn't seen people like Jimmy Rogers for many years, stuff like this.

You know, I finished my new record, and we knew we wasn't going to have time to have the record finished for any opportunities to be chosen. So I just looked at that fact, and we thought, well, look at B.B. King with a new book. There's Buddy Guy with a new book, so many guys with books. What's the best book I can come up with. And it was what I'd done from '76 to '94 at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. So we tried to find out if we could just represent something. I felt really not good about if I could win five Handy's last year, and nothing to represent this year. I felt bad about that, but we came up with this, and I just hope something can happen.

What does winning a Handy Award mean to you?

It's a lifetime achievement thing to Luther Allison, and I ain't even dead yet. (laughs) When I looked at that, and went back to where I was born at in Widenour, Ark., and I thought about my parents, and my family in general...I used to watch my dad plant corn and cotton and stuff like this. Sometimes it came up beautiful, sometimes it didn't. And I think this is what all this means to me, I'm just continuing the flight from my dad and my mother and how hard they worked to put a person like Luther Allison in this position. To give me the encouragement, and the talent, to do what I wanted to do without telling me you gotta get a for real job or whatever.

I'm just so overwhelmed by the fact that I'm able to sit here in Paris, France, and talk to you in Memphis, Tennessee, and get to Memphis, meet so many people I never knew, though I felt like we been knowing each other for all my life, and the reception I was getting and the places I was able to hang out. And not once did I have to ask a musician if I could I play a note. Everybody knew I wanted to play anyway. I just felt very at home. I felt at home. Now I'm thinking very strongly about what would happen if I lived down there. I'm now old enough to understand how beautiful it could be there.

We'll talk about that in a minute. One of the things that continues to amaze me is that before the Handy Awards you were out walking around the lobby, an hour after the King Biscuit Blues Festival you were still sitting there talking to fans. You give back. How important is that?

Let me say, I'm a Duracell battery. They just keep on giving me fire and energy and belief, and showing me a reason to carry on. For some reason, I believe there is something missing in our musical and world department. I need to reflect back good things to the young people and older people that's hanging out in the musical field that we can come together so easily and so beautifully, without a whole bunch of problems.

And if you got a problem, I'm going to help you solve that problem if I possibly can. If you are down and out, I'm going to try to lift you up. I want to feel what you feel, and them I'm going to twist that bad feeling around and make you forget about that down feeling if I can.

On the new record, you talk about the bells of freedom, but you want to hear them ring. Is that what you're talking about here?

That's what I'm looking for. We can see the bells, you understand. But we can't hear them ringing. They're making noise, but they're not ringing. We got to make them ring loud and clear. ... So if you look at how much love is needed in this world, that's what we want to be taken out with - love. If I die from what Luther Allison is doing now, and the respect I'm getting from the outside public, myself and my relatives and closest friends, man take me away.

You don't right now just much I'm looking forward to getting back down to Memphis. To Beale Street. And seeing what's going to happen with all the musicians there for the awards. Stepping into Arkansas, and Mississippi, and really understanding it. Now I do understand it.

You made the new record on Beale again at 315 Beale Street recording studios, working with Jim Gaines again. How did that come together?

When I got involved with Jim Gaines, through my European manager, and Jim saw me later in Minneapolis to check me out. He got me in the studio doing Soul Fixin' Man , and he was kind of overwhelmed I guess by what I was about, how I represented myself. About how much I was into what I do, about the way I sing or the way I play. The care that I gave, and the respect I gave to everybody. I think the depth of me being easy to work with, not drinking all day or being high all day. I'm very curious, but the basics with Jim is if I don't get in the way. In other words, I'll sit there and observe things. I'll say a few words if I think it's necessary. But the producers going to produce. Let him produce. I know I'm a musician. I'm going to sing and play the way I know to sing and play.

But, on the other hand, I need a good coach in my life now. And that's something I never had before in my career.

That's a good description of Gaines. He's a good coach.

Absolutely. Gaines is a great coach. You know, I also got to give James Solberg some credit. We go back a long, long way. He's a great writer. A great guy to work with. I took him directions he's never been. When me and Solberg hooked up, it took him new places. But he did the same. He took me to new levels. We'd been down on the second floor and never up on the sixth floor. Somebody's got to fight those battles. I think that's what got Luther Allison the motivation to write about the situation of the world. I want people to know my music is blues, but maybe a little bit more than that. So we can maybe get the understanding of what it maybe means to be in the 'hood. What it maybe means, I'm saying in a new song, I'm going back home and getting the friends I left behind. That doesn't mean I'm going back to Paris. Maybe that means I'm going back to that neighborhood. Get the friends I left behind out of there.

One thing about the song "Pain in the Streets." My theory is, everybody knows Muddy Waters said the blues had a baby and they named it rock 'n' roll. Everybody's hip to that. I still say, Luther Allison says, the blues had another baby and they named it freedom. My version of freedom, people know a little more about what's going on in the world, in our society. You don't have to be in Memphis, Tennessee, or Mississippi or Georgia or Alabama or even Chicago to hear a lot of racism and whole lot of crap.

So, OK now. I just saw the blues making out again, just recently. It's going to have another baby. It's called pain. You understand what I'm saying. The whole world today can understand pain. I even take it back to when I was in my momma's tummy. Most people is kicking to get out of there. Not Luther. I was scratching to stay in, just like I scratch on my guitar.

I just finished a two-month tour. And this song "Pain," when I get through outlining what's going on, I got people singing with me, whether they speak English or not. That's what I've been looking for.

Why have you stayed in Paris?

I found Luther Allison over here. I could write here. Over there, I was too busy hanging out. Trying to make a living. Jamming or what not. Totally dependent on musicians who would mess you up any way they could. You just get to a point you can't create. So I guess this was the greatest miracle I could ask for. Now I can come back with Alligator Records. Bruce (Iglauer, founder and president of Alligator) told me last year I was the reason he got into blues. I said, "You're just telling me that now?" (laughs)

How are things going with Alligator? Is this the last record on your deal with them?

This is the last one on the deal as far as I know. I'm ready for negotiating. I think we've done a great job, not only on his side but also giving my unit in Europe a lot of credit. Bruce is a great guy, and he's good to his artists. I've known him for years. I'm so happy to be on his wagon. I'm hoping I was able to pick up some of the pieces he had lost through Hound Dog (Taylor, Alligator's original artist who died in 1975) and these people. Bruce knows what I can do.

I'm just hoping I'm not at the tail end of something great. You see where I'm coming from? These things happen. We'll see where it goes. He's got first option now to see where we're going. But I would like to look at my career as it is moving up. I don't want to think about the next 20 years. I'm 57 now. I got the energy now of the youngsters gaining superstardom. I just want to fit where I'm supposed to fit. People talk about, "Luther Allison, the new king of the blues." I don't want to know about that stuff. B.B. King is my man until it's over, and when it's over, he's still going to go down as the king. I just want to go from there.

What I really want is what I'm getting. You ain't going to see too many people, if any, go out on that stage for four hours, no stopping, and give people 199 percent like Luther Allison do now. Then get off stage, go jam, talk to people, and do all this. And I'm so proud I can do that.

You can't know what tomorrow's going to bring. I've rebuilt my home in the U.S. as much as I can. I hope this next tour will bring out people who've heard of Luther Allison by talking and reading and observing, by research. So when I come, I don't have to worry about, "You're this, and Buddy Guy is that." I don't want to hear about that. I want us to be able to say there's room for everybody. And if I qualify, elect me. That's where I'm at. I'm not going to walk in like I'm a star or some shit. I'm going to walk in there like a guy who's enjoying hisself and enjoy being with people all over the world. That's the way I am.