BERNARD ALLISON – Life Story
Interesting fact in blues community is having fathers and sons who are blues legends in their own way. Some names come to mind like James and Lucky Peterson, Jimmy Rogers and Jimmy D Lane, Lonnie Brooks and Ronnie Baker Brooks with Wayne Baker Brooks, Muddy Waters and his sons Mud Morganfield, Big Bill Morganfield and Joseph Mojo Morganfield and more… with exception of Johny Copeland and his daughter Shemekia!
Here’s a little story of Bernard Allison, son of Chicago blues legend Luther Allison who did and exceptional performance at Skopje Blues & Soul Festival. Bernard Allison grew up in a house filled with music… listening to his family’s record collection and his father’s recordings, and later discovering the music of his own generation, too. He has been active as a musician since the early 80’s, beginning with a couple of appearances with his dad and enjoying a couple of stints with Koko Taylor and her Blues Machine, the first one beginning the week after he graduated from high school.
He later served as his father’s European band leader and under his tutelage, was able to develop his own talents as a front man and guitarist. Since the late 80’s, the younger Allison has been recording and leading his own band. His first few albums were recorded in Europe for European labels, but he really came into his own with his first U.S. release in 1997, Keepin’ the Blues Alive, on Ron Levy’s Cannonball Records label.
Beside being an exceptional guitarist, Bernard Allison wrote his own song material. He also co-wrote and arranged music for Luther’s final three albums which, as per music critics, were some of his best releases in long going career. While rooted in the blues tradition learned from his father, Bernard is known for a more modern, funk-influenced blues-rock sound. Though he has comfortably established his own position in today’s blues scene, in many ways, Bernard Allison‘s career mirrors his father’s. It’s a fact that European audiences accepted and appreciate blues as a vital music form, many US bluesmen settled on European soil during the past decades living and performing to wide portions of blues fans.
Both, Luther and Bernard, migrated to France to enjoy the vibrant blues scene in the European countries, Luther Allison‘s brand of blues dipped heavily into the rock and soul music that he listened to growing up, while Bernard Allison‘s brand of blues encompasses the rock, soul, R&B, and funk that he grew up listening to. Finally, Luther Allison and Bernard Allison were an electrifying live performer, that goes especially for Bernard who gives 100 per cent at every gig he does.
In Skopje he played with great backing band and proved to be one of the major forces on current blues scene. He used to do a lot of covers at the beginning he was doing mostly covers, but in the later stages of his career he usually does his own material with added bonus of songs that made his father well-known figure in blues. Bernard‘s music credentials could not get un-noticed by music media, accolades kept coming about his music releases, concerts and charity work.
Bernard Allison was inducted into the Minnesota Blues Hall Of Fame for Blues Performer, his 2022 release Highs And Lows was nominated for “Blues Rock Album in the 44th Annual BLues Music Awards presented by The Blues Foundation to mention a few. His last album, ‘Luther’s Blues‘, released in 2024, celebrates the music of his father Luther Allison, a true legend of the Chicago blues and a central figure in the Chicago blues history. The two-disc set features 20 stellar tracks from Bernard Allison, each one a Luther Allison composition previously released on one of Bernard‘s many albums. Allison himself hand-picked the songs for the collection which performs live along with his own material.
Luther Allison nurtured Bernard’s career having him as a leader in his own band on numerous tours around the globe, playing at all major blues festivals. Recently he is recording new material which should be released sometime this year and is already causing interest among blues fans who are anxious to hear Bernard‘s new stage of his development. No doubt it will be a major stone in his already brilliant career and fans can’t wait to hear it, me included!
YT – Bernard Allison – Should I Wait
YT Bernard Allison – Chills & Thrills
Author:
Vasja Ivanovski
Skopje, Sjeverna Makedonija
