Lurrie Bell

Lurrie Bell entered the world on December 13, 1958, in Chicago. Harpist Carey Bell, his celebrated father, put a guitar in his hands while he was still very young. By 1977 he was already cutting sides alongside his dad and supporting an array of veteran performers, widely regarded then as an imminent breakout talent. Personal difficulties soon eroded that promise, leaving his studio work and stage appearances uneven throughout the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. Standout entries in his catalog include three numbers recorded with harpist Billy Branch under the Sons of Blues name—Bell having co-founded the group—on Alligator’s inaugural 1978 Living Chicago Blues collections, plus the 1984 Rooster Blues album Son of a Gun, a joint effort with his father. His 1995 Delmark release Mercurial Son ranks among the most eccentric modern blues records available. The more direct 700 Blues followed in spring 1997, and The Blues Had a Baby arrived two years afterward. Both Let’s Talk About Love (2007) and The Devil Ain’t Got No Music (2012) came out on his own Aria B.G. imprint. Returning to Delmark in 2013, he issued Blues in My Soul, a project that reaffirmed his commitment to unadorned Chicago blues traditions. Three years later Delmark released Can’t Shake This Feeling.