{"id":14724,"date":"2014-07-14T18:30:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T23:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=14724"},"modified":"2014-07-14T16:04:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T21:04:38","slug":"lazy-lester-road-trip-to-the-blues-summer-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/lazy-lester-road-trip-to-the-blues-summer-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Lazy Lester: Road Trip to the Blues, Summer 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in The Local Voice<\/em> #207. To download a PDF of this issue, click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

by Rafael Alvarez (alvarezfiction.com<\/a>)
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"lester<\/a>Before there was Global Warming\u2014at least our carbon-driven version of it\u2014there was the sultry blue heat of Lazy Lester<\/strong>, born Leslie Johnson<\/strong> in 1933 in the long-vanished river town of Torras, Louisiana.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was with Lester that my Summer of 2014 blues voyage\u2014Ralphie on the Road, Volume 61\u2014began in my native Crabtown; a late June gig\u00a0 at an American Legion Hall organized by the Baltimore Blues Society<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best known for his harmonica work, Lester is one of the last of the old school greats, a 1950\u2019s star for Excello Records and a multi-instrumentalist whom Buddy Guy<\/strong>, a compadre from the Pelican State, calls \u201cone of the old masters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With former Nighthawk Pete Kanaras<\/strong> on guitar, Joe Maher<\/strong> on drums and Tommy Hannigan<\/strong> playing bass, Lester launched the evening with a bit of preaching: \u201cIf the Great Master made anything better than music, he kept it to Himself \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a quote of fabled elasticity, often credited to Kris Kristofferson<\/strong> in regard to pulchritude\u2014perhaps the greatest subject of the blues\u2014and to William S. Burroughs<\/strong> on the subject of heroin. I\u2019m with Lester on this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as Lester, who left Baltimore over the Fourth of July holiday for a tour of Norway, Finland, and Spain, was with Lightnin\u2019 Slim<\/strong> [Otis Hicks<\/strong>] on a 1956 Excello single called \u201cSugar Plum.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

As a session man for the Nashville-based Excello, which used recording studios in Crowley, Louisiana, Lester sometimes provided percussion with a rolled up magazine on a cardboard box. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnything we could get some noise out of,\u201d said Lester.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"lester<\/a>Getting his turn in the spotlight, Lester cut 15 singles for Excello under his own name between 1958 and 1966, all in a sexy, gyrating groove\u2014the sound that put the kick in \u201cThe Pondarosa Stomp\u201d\u2014which non-musicians would later call \u201cswamp blues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On stage in Baltimore, Lester wore a t-shirt with an image of his 1958 Excello 45 \u201cSugar Coated Love,\u201d a blues as close to rock and roll as corn husks are to tamales.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLove,\u201d has been covered by many, including The Fabulous Thunderbirds<\/strong> and their Lone Star sister Lou Ann Barton<\/strong>. The Leland-born Johnny Winter<\/strong>, who began following Lester as a teenager in Beaumont, Texas, included it on his 2004 Virgin Records release, I\u2019m a Bluesman<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the highlights of the current blues season is the four-CD release of Winter\u2019s True to the Blues<\/em> on Columbia, a career-spanning anthology featuring Winter\u2019s ten-minute shellacking of B.B. King<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s My Own Fault.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"TLV-207-pg-14\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Winter, whose upcoming release, Step Back<\/em>,\u00a0 will feature Billy Gibbons<\/strong> and Dr. John<\/strong>, headlined the 2013 Oxford Blues Festival<\/strong>, set this year for July 17th\u201319th and featuring Big Joe Shelton<\/strong> and Castro \u201cMister Sipp\u201d Coleman<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A week before his Baltimore show, on June 20, Lazy Lester turned 81; and his voice remains strong. After \u201cSugar Coated Love,\u201d he made a technology joke known to every Elvis<\/strong> fan in search of a \u201c45 adapter\u201d and long lost on the iPod generation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna turn this over and play the flip side,\u201d he said, smiling.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then rocked into \u201cI\u2019m a Lover Not a Fighter,\u201d a gem which Ray Davies<\/strong> and The Kinks<\/strong> Merseyed-up for their self-titled UK debut LP in 1964. <\/span><\/p>\n

Afterward, sipping a beer with his wife, Finland-born Pike Kaksonen<\/strong>, the affable Lester talked about shepherding the true blues from the Eisenhower-era into the 21st century.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust keep on keepin\u2019 on,\u201d he said between sets. \u201cIt feels great to be one of the last ones standing, still performing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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