Biography
Emerging during the 1980s as one of blues music’s most accomplished guitarists, Ronnie Earl crafts performances marked by deep feeling and technical brilliance, traversing the genre’s past while weaving in strands of jazz, soul, and rock. Working both alone and alongside his enduring ensemble the Broadcasters, he has issued dozens of recordings that earned him repeated “Guitar Player of the Year” honors. Guided by spiritual concerns, his instrumental mastery supported landmark releases such as 1993’s Still River and 1996’s Language of the Soul. Once 2000’s The Colour of Love reached the Top 200, he joined Canada’s leading independent Stony Plain for 2004’s I Feel Like Goin’ On. 2009’s Healing Time registered on international charts, and 2016’s Maxwell Street offered a lively homage to Chicago blues. 2019’s Beyond the Blue Door assembled an all-star set of blues, R&B, and rock interpretations. He followed that project with 2020’s socially aware Rise Up and 2022’s Mercy Me, a collection built largely around covers.
Ronald Horvath entered the world in Queens, New York, on March 10, 1953. Only after enrolling at Boston University in the early 1970s did he take up the guitar, drawn in by the city’s thriving blues community. Progressing rapidly, he secured a position in the house band at Cambridge, Massachusetts’s Speakeasy Club and adopted the surname Earl to honor Earl Hooker, a primary influence. Before the change, he had cut sides for the small Baron label under his birth name starting in 1977, first supporting Guitar Johnny & the Rhythm Rockers and then helping form Sugar Ray & the Bluetones alongside harmonica player and singer Sugar Ray Norcia. In 1979 Roomful of Blues invited him to replace Duke Robillard; the Rhode Island group’s buoyant jump-blues revival required both jazz sophistication and strong blues roots. He remained with Roomful of Blues for eight years as the band’s national visibility steadily increased.
During the same period Earl began recording sparingly for Black Top Records and assembled the initial lineups of the Broadcasters in the early 1980s. His debut solo effort, Smokin’, appeared in 1983 and was succeeded by They Call Me Mr. Earl in 1984; both later appeared together on the CD Deep Blues. These projects remained secondary to his Roomful duties until he departed the group in 1987 to pursue a career as a solo artist and bandleader. A reconstituted Broadcasters surfaced in 1988 on Soul Searchin’, featuring vocalist Darrell Nulisch, harmonica player Jerry Portnoy (formerly of Muddy Waters), bassist Steve Gomes, and drummer Per Hanson. Peace of Mind arrived in 1990, joined by the live Antone’s release I Like It When It Rains, actually recorded in 1986. Surrounded by Love, issued in 1991, reunited Earl with Sugar Ray Norcia and concluded his extended association with Black Top.
By the early 1990s Earl had confronted and surmounted struggles with alcohol and cocaine, prompting a reassessment of his musical direction. He assembled a fresh Broadcasters lineup with organist Bruce Katz, bassist Rod Carey, and longtime drummer Per Hanson, choosing to proceed without a singer. This instrumental orientation, now more deeply shaped by jazz, debuted on 1993’s Still River for AudioQuest and led to a European tour. Signing with Bullseye Blues, he delivered a series of well-received albums: 1994’s Language of the Soul, 1995’s Blues Guitar Virtuoso Live in Europe (drawn from the 1993 tour and originally titled Blues and Forgiveness), and 1996’s Grateful Heart: Blues and Ballads, which included David “Fathead” Newman. The last two earned particular praise, with Live in Europe topping Pulse magazine’s year-end poll for Best Blues Album and Grateful Heart achieving the same distinction in Down Beat.
The favorable notices secured a major-label agreement with Verve. The Colour of Love, his 1997 debut for the label, exceeded 65,000 copies sold—one of the strongest commercial showings of his career—and he received a W.C. Handy Award as Best Blues Instrumentalist that same year. Sensing excessive pressure to increase sales, Earl grew disillusioned with the arrangement and, around the same time, experienced an episode of manic depression. He ultimately left Verve, stepped away from leading a band and performing live, disbanded the Broadcasters, and moved to the smaller Telarc label as a solo artist.
His first Telarc recording, 2000’s Healing Time, paired him with renowned soul-jazz organist Jimmy McGriff. The follow-up, 2001’s Ronnie Earl and Friends, took the form of an informal jam featuring guests such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Kim Wilson, Irma Thomas, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, and the Band’s Levon Helm. Returning in 2003 with primarily instrumental material, he issued I Feel Like Goin’ On on Canada’s Stony Plain. A second Stony Plain album, Now My Soul, followed in 2004, and a third, The Duke Meets the Earl—a collaboration with fellow former Roomful of Blues guitarist Duke Robillard—appeared in 2005. Earl’s next Stony Plain release, 2009’s Living in the Light, marked a reunion with the Broadcasters. He and the group continued with 2010’s Spread the Love, an instrumental tribute to mentors, friends, and family.
After extensive international touring, Earl and his band paused for a well-earned respite. Just for Today emerged in 2013, spotlighting vocalist Diane Blue, who became the ensemble’s first female member, and Detroit guitarist Nicholas Tabarias. Late that year Earl & the Broadcasters recorded again, resulting in Good News, a mix of originals and covers that included Blue, Tabarias, and guitarist Zach Zunis on select tracks; the album was released in June 2014. In 2015 Earl and the current Broadcasters—bassist Jim Mouradian, keyboardist Dave Limina, and drummer Lorne Entress—joined vocalist Blue and a horn section for Father’s Day, recorded in tribute to his father, Akos Horvath. The following year he released Maxwell Street, honoring former Broadcasters pianist and blues legend David Maxwell. In 2017 Earl & the Broadcasters issued The Luckiest Man, which reached number two on the Blues Album Charts and number one in streaming, earning him a fifth Blues Music Award as Best Blues Guitarist at the annual Memphis ceremony. Summer 2019 brought Beyond the Blue Door, a jazz-blues project featuring returning guests David Bromberg, Greg Piccolo, and Kim Wilson alongside the Broadcasters.
While recovering from back surgery to ease persistent sciatica in early 2020, Earl captured several topical originals—including the instrumental “Blues for George Floyd,” the talking blues “Black Lives Matter,” and “Navajo Blues,” acknowledging the indigenous community’s disproportionate impact from the coronavirus—in quick living-room sessions at his suburban Boston home just before pandemic quarantines began. The band also interpreted Bob Dylan’s “Lord Protect My Child.” Additional tracks from his appearance on Daryl Hall’s Daryl’s House Club cable program were added, and the resulting Rise Up appeared in September. In 2022 Earl released Mercy Me, whose twelve songs encompassed covers of Muddy Waters (“Blow Wind Blow”), John Coltrane (“Alabama”), Percy Mayfield (“Please Send Me Someone to Love”), Dave Mason (“Only You Know and I Know”), and Jackie Wilson (“Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher”), together with seven originals, among them the acoustic tribute “Blues for Ruthie Foster.”
Ronald Horvath entered the world in Queens, New York, on March 10, 1953. Only after enrolling at Boston University in the early 1970s did he take up the guitar, drawn in by the city’s thriving blues community. Progressing rapidly, he secured a position in the house band at Cambridge, Massachusetts’s Speakeasy Club and adopted the surname Earl to honor Earl Hooker, a primary influence. Before the change, he had cut sides for the small Baron label under his birth name starting in 1977, first supporting Guitar Johnny & the Rhythm Rockers and then helping form Sugar Ray & the Bluetones alongside harmonica player and singer Sugar Ray Norcia. In 1979 Roomful of Blues invited him to replace Duke Robillard; the Rhode Island group’s buoyant jump-blues revival required both jazz sophistication and strong blues roots. He remained with Roomful of Blues for eight years as the band’s national visibility steadily increased.
During the same period Earl began recording sparingly for Black Top Records and assembled the initial lineups of the Broadcasters in the early 1980s. His debut solo effort, Smokin’, appeared in 1983 and was succeeded by They Call Me Mr. Earl in 1984; both later appeared together on the CD Deep Blues. These projects remained secondary to his Roomful duties until he departed the group in 1987 to pursue a career as a solo artist and bandleader. A reconstituted Broadcasters surfaced in 1988 on Soul Searchin’, featuring vocalist Darrell Nulisch, harmonica player Jerry Portnoy (formerly of Muddy Waters), bassist Steve Gomes, and drummer Per Hanson. Peace of Mind arrived in 1990, joined by the live Antone’s release I Like It When It Rains, actually recorded in 1986. Surrounded by Love, issued in 1991, reunited Earl with Sugar Ray Norcia and concluded his extended association with Black Top.
By the early 1990s Earl had confronted and surmounted struggles with alcohol and cocaine, prompting a reassessment of his musical direction. He assembled a fresh Broadcasters lineup with organist Bruce Katz, bassist Rod Carey, and longtime drummer Per Hanson, choosing to proceed without a singer. This instrumental orientation, now more deeply shaped by jazz, debuted on 1993’s Still River for AudioQuest and led to a European tour. Signing with Bullseye Blues, he delivered a series of well-received albums: 1994’s Language of the Soul, 1995’s Blues Guitar Virtuoso Live in Europe (drawn from the 1993 tour and originally titled Blues and Forgiveness), and 1996’s Grateful Heart: Blues and Ballads, which included David “Fathead” Newman. The last two earned particular praise, with Live in Europe topping Pulse magazine’s year-end poll for Best Blues Album and Grateful Heart achieving the same distinction in Down Beat.
The favorable notices secured a major-label agreement with Verve. The Colour of Love, his 1997 debut for the label, exceeded 65,000 copies sold—one of the strongest commercial showings of his career—and he received a W.C. Handy Award as Best Blues Instrumentalist that same year. Sensing excessive pressure to increase sales, Earl grew disillusioned with the arrangement and, around the same time, experienced an episode of manic depression. He ultimately left Verve, stepped away from leading a band and performing live, disbanded the Broadcasters, and moved to the smaller Telarc label as a solo artist.
His first Telarc recording, 2000’s Healing Time, paired him with renowned soul-jazz organist Jimmy McGriff. The follow-up, 2001’s Ronnie Earl and Friends, took the form of an informal jam featuring guests such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Kim Wilson, Irma Thomas, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, and the Band’s Levon Helm. Returning in 2003 with primarily instrumental material, he issued I Feel Like Goin’ On on Canada’s Stony Plain. A second Stony Plain album, Now My Soul, followed in 2004, and a third, The Duke Meets the Earl—a collaboration with fellow former Roomful of Blues guitarist Duke Robillard—appeared in 2005. Earl’s next Stony Plain release, 2009’s Living in the Light, marked a reunion with the Broadcasters. He and the group continued with 2010’s Spread the Love, an instrumental tribute to mentors, friends, and family.
After extensive international touring, Earl and his band paused for a well-earned respite. Just for Today emerged in 2013, spotlighting vocalist Diane Blue, who became the ensemble’s first female member, and Detroit guitarist Nicholas Tabarias. Late that year Earl & the Broadcasters recorded again, resulting in Good News, a mix of originals and covers that included Blue, Tabarias, and guitarist Zach Zunis on select tracks; the album was released in June 2014. In 2015 Earl and the current Broadcasters—bassist Jim Mouradian, keyboardist Dave Limina, and drummer Lorne Entress—joined vocalist Blue and a horn section for Father’s Day, recorded in tribute to his father, Akos Horvath. The following year he released Maxwell Street, honoring former Broadcasters pianist and blues legend David Maxwell. In 2017 Earl & the Broadcasters issued The Luckiest Man, which reached number two on the Blues Album Charts and number one in streaming, earning him a fifth Blues Music Award as Best Blues Guitarist at the annual Memphis ceremony. Summer 2019 brought Beyond the Blue Door, a jazz-blues project featuring returning guests David Bromberg, Greg Piccolo, and Kim Wilson alongside the Broadcasters.
While recovering from back surgery to ease persistent sciatica in early 2020, Earl captured several topical originals—including the instrumental “Blues for George Floyd,” the talking blues “Black Lives Matter,” and “Navajo Blues,” acknowledging the indigenous community’s disproportionate impact from the coronavirus—in quick living-room sessions at his suburban Boston home just before pandemic quarantines began. The band also interpreted Bob Dylan’s “Lord Protect My Child.” Additional tracks from his appearance on Daryl Hall’s Daryl’s House Club cable program were added, and the resulting Rise Up appeared in September. In 2022 Earl released Mercy Me, whose twelve songs encompassed covers of Muddy Waters (“Blow Wind Blow”), John Coltrane (“Alabama”), Percy Mayfield (“Please Send Me Someone to Love”), Dave Mason (“Only You Know and I Know”), and Jackie Wilson (“Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher”), together with seven originals, among them the acoustic tribute “Blues for Ruthie Foster.”
Albums
