Luther Allison(1939-1997)

Blues guitarist Luther Allison was born in Widener, AR, in 1939. His family moved to Chicago in 1951 and he joined a local gospel group, The Southern Travellers. He became interested in the blues and joined a blues band headed by his brother Ollie. He later formed a band with another brother, Grant, called The Rolling Stones (they later changed the name of the group to The Four Jivers). Allison was a mainstay in the Chicago blues scene as a sideman and performer, but he began attracting attention outside of Chicago when he performed at such places as the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in Michigan and the famous Fillmore East (in New York) and Fillmore West (in San Francisco) clubs. He recorded several albums for various labels (including Berry Gordy's Gordy Records). He toured Europe in the 1960s and 1970s and met with success there, and he eventually relocated to France. He died of lung cancer in Madison, WI, in 1997.