Party: Guitar Lightnin' Lee from New Orleans Thursday 12/18 9pm

Party: Guitar Lightnin' Lee from New Orleans Thursday 12/18 9pm

New Orleans legend GUITAR LIGHTNIN' LEE
guitarlightninlee.com/ Co-sponsored by the CBA
Thursday 12/18 9pm Duffs Garage

Guitar Lightnin' Lee - 'Going To Amsterdam'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByNVpAwtBQI

Guitar Lightnin' Lee - 'Mississippi Alabama Bound'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSfqvb4GKR4

Leroy "Guitar Lightnin' Lee" Williams was born in New Orleans' 6th Ward, and grew up in the Lower 9th.
In his teens, Williams worked at a bowling alley and boxed at Curley's Neutral Corner on Poydras Street. On off nights, he'd go with friends to hear music.
"We used to go up around places like the place up on LaSalle Street, the Dew Drop Inn," he said. "We were too young to go in, but we used to stand outside and listen. We'd find a place. We knew where the music was at."
Many years later, Artigue, growing up in Central City and Uptown, would listen to songs cut by the performers Lightnin' had idolized. "But I never had anybody to play blues with," he said. "I was always looking for someone to kind of play that music with."
Eventually, he would.
At 17, Williams struck out on his own for Chicago, where he met another teenager, a kid named Leon. Music came up in conversation, and Lightnin' allowed that he played some guitar.
"And Leon said, 'Really? My girlfriend's daddy plays guitar,'" Williams recalled.
His girlfriend's dad was Jimmy Reed -- the young player's first influence. The next day after work, they met, although the relationship wasn't exactly a mentoring one.
"Jimmy Reed told me, 'You need to go back to Louisiana!'" he laughed. "Oh, he told me that many days. But I hung around and hung around, and I watched enough to pick up the things I picked up."
Williams made his way back to New Orleans around 1970, after a stint in the Army. He was employed by day as a heavy equipment operator, and through the course of two marriages, he always found time to go out at night with Josephine -- the name he gave his red guitar. He gigged with Little Freddie King and with Antoine Domino, and hung out with Ernie K-Doe and Earl King.
Paul Artigue and Lightnin' Williams finally met in 1997, at the now-closed Dryades Street club Guitar Joe's Electric House of Blues, run by Williams' then-manager. Artigue, who at that time was about the age Lightnin' had been when he struck out for Chicago in 1959, had lent a co-worker a drum to play a gig there.
But the most relevant thing is that something about Guitar Lightnin' and Paul Artigue together just rocks. Marvin Hirsch's bass is a steadying anchor; lead guitarist Todd Mathers, probably one of the most underrated players in the city, tops it all off with masterful licks. In between is a supercharged tornado of sound: slamming drums, semi-distorted guitar, and Lightnin's deep, growling voice. Real blues, real punk, real New Orleans.
After 15 years together, each player has become more a part of the other's world than he might have.
The Thunder Band's brief but varied catalog illustrates the group's odd confluence of styles. Fats Domino, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, Mr. Quintron and punk icon King Louie Bankston have all appeared on recordings. Williams' most popular cover is Cookie and the Cupcakes' swamp-pop classic "Mathilda;" another set standard is the Cramps' 1978 psychedelic creeper "Human Fly."
"He's my best friend," Artigue said of Williams. "I learn something from him every day. I respect everything that guy says. It's hard to explain. It's not like you can have two dads -- I talk to my real dad every day -- but I also think, 'What would Lightnin' do?' every day of my life."
"Paul is like my son, really," Williams said. "We can talk about anything together. We fall in, we fall out. But we're close. We never give up on each other."
- ALISON FENSTERSTOCK, NOLA.com
*For complete article on Guitar Lightnin' Lee go to:
http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2012/04/guitar_lightnin_lee_and_the_th.html