Larry Garner

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Larry Garner

| image = Larrygarner2013.jpg

| caption = Garner in 2013

| image_size = 200px

| background = solo_singer

| birth_name = Larry Garner

| alias =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|07|08|mf=y}}

| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

| death_date =

| instrument = Guitar, vocals

| genre = Louisiana blues, swamp blues

| occupation = Musician, singer, songwriter

| years_active = Early 1980s–present

| label = Several including JSP and Ruf

| associated_acts =

| website =

}}

Larry Garner (born July 8, 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States){{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/larry-garner-mn0000128186/biography|title=Larry Garner: Artist Biography |author=Dahl, Bill |publisher=AllMusic.com |accessdate=December 15, 2009}} is a Louisiana blues musician best known for his 1994 album Too Blues.{{cite book

| first= Tony

| last= Russell

| year= 1997

| title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray

| edition= 1st

| publisher= Carlton Books Limited

| location= Dubai

| isbn= 1-85868-255-X

| page= 4}}, quote: "

One music journalist noted "If you define 'blues' by the rigid categories of structure rather than the flexible language of feeling allusion, Robert Cray... Larry Garner, Joe Louis Walker and James Armstrong are a new and uncategorizable breed, their music blues-like rather than blues, each of them blending ideas and devices from a variety of sources – soul, rock, jazz, gospel – with a sophistication beyond the reach of their forerunners".

Biography

Garner grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His first inspiration was the guitar-playing preacher Reverend Utah Smith. Garner made acquaintance with local musicians such as Lonesome Sundown, Silas Hogan, Guitar Kelley and Tabby Thomas.{{cite book

| first= Tony

| last= Russell

| year= 1997

| title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray

| edition=

| publisher= Carlton Books Limited

| location= Dubai

| page= 113

| isbn= 1-85868-255-X}} His musical influences include Hogan, Clarence Edwards, Jimi Hendrix, and Henry Gray. He was taught to play guitar by his uncle and two other elders. Garner completed military service in Korea and returned to Baton Rouge, working part-time in music and full-time at a Dow Chemical plant.

Garner won the International Blues Challenge in 1988. His first two albums, Double Dues and Too Blues, were released by the British JSP label. The latter album's title was in reply to a label executive who judged Garner's original demo to be "too blues". Thomas's nightclub, Tabby's Blues Box, provided Garner with a playing base in the 1980s and gave him the subject matter for the song "No Free Rides" on Double Dues.

He recorded the albums You Need to Live a Little (1995), Standing Room Only (1998), Baton Rouge (1995) and Once Upon the Blues (2000). The song "Go to Baton Rouge", from the album Baton Rouge, offered a tourist's guide to Louisiana music spots.

In 2008, Garner was treated for a serious illness that was the inspiration for his 2008 album, Here Today Gone Tomorrow.{{cite news |title=BR's Larry Garner Grateful to Be Here Today |newspaper=The Advocate |date=2008-08-15 |author=Wirt, John |page=18FUN}}{{cite web |url=http://www.bluesweb.com/p_disque.php3?id_article=1393 |title=Larry Garner, Here Today Gone Tomorrow |accessdate=December 15, 2009 |publisher=Bluesweb.com}}

Discography

All eight of Garner's CDs have been released by labels in Europe or Britain:

Too Blues (1994), JSP
Double Dues (1995), JSP
You Need to Live a Little (1995), Polygram
Standing Room Only (1998), Ruf
Baton Rouge (1995), Evidence
Once Upon the Blues (2000), Ruf
Embarrassment to the Blues?, live album (2002), Ruf
Here Today Gone Tomorrow (2008), Dixiefrog
Larry Garner, Norman Beaker and Friends: Live at the Tivoli, recorded at the Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne Minster, 8 October 2009 (2010)
Blues for Sale (2012), Dixiefrog{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/larry-garner-mn0000128186/discography |title=Larry Garner: Album Discography |publisher=AllMusic.com |date=1952-07-08 |accessdate=2015-10-06}}