Earl Gaines toured with Mo'Indigo in September/October 2001. Earl had a million-selling hit with his first single "24 Hours A Day" in 1955. Earl was the 19-year old protégé of Ted Jarrett, boss of Excello records. Ted would teach Earl new songs he had written, Earl in turn would coach the artists Ted had selected to record them. On hearing "24 Hours" for the first time, the young Earl asked Ted Jarrett if there was any chance he could record this one himself. The result, as they say, is history. Ted then passed many of his best songs to Earl for recording. Eventually the blues boom of the fifties and sixties faded. Earl kept working with other labels and producers, but eventually quit the music business and spent 15 years as a truck driver, running between Nashville and Vegas.
Somehow the guys in the depot found out about Earl's illustrious past, which led to magazine articles and a TV documentary about the "Singing Truck Driver". Coincidentally a lot of Earl's early work was being re-released, record labels got in contact and Earl was back in business! In 2001 he teamed up again with Ted Jarrett and the two of them are preparing a new album for release.
Al Garner
Al Garner could be described at the last of the old time 'I sing 'em the way I feel' blues men. Al is just as likely to make up a new song on the spot as he is to rework one of the old songs he recorded for Excello in the fifties. Al worked with Mo'Indigo on the Beatles Blues project and The Excello Blues legends tour of 2001. Al shared success on the Excello label with Slim Harpo and Roscoe Shelton. He had a regional hit with 'Leavin' Tennesse', and in keeping with the biographical nature of his work, almost immediately quit Nashville for Texas! where he took up the drumming chair with Roscoe Gordon whose 'Just A Little Bit' became an R&B standard. He also worked for a long while with Freddy King's road band, before finally returning to his roots near Nashville, Tenn. Al Garner was featured on the 'Blues Across America' anthology, and cut a CD for the Dutch Black magic label in the late '90s. He still lives in Nashville and is hoping for a couple more good years in the music game before hanging up his rock'n'roll shoes.
No one deserves it more than the hard working Al.
Al Garner could be described at the last of the old time 'I sing 'em the way I feel' blues men. Al is just as likely to make up a new song on the spot as he is to rework one of the old songs he recorded for Excello in the fifties. Al worked with Mo'Indigo on the Beatles Blues project and The Excello Blues legends tour of 2001. Al shared success on the Excello label with Slim Harpo and Roscoe Shelton. He had a regional hit with 'Leavin' Tennesse', and in keeping with the biographical nature of his work, almost immediately quit Nashville for Texas! where he took up the drumming chair with Roscoe Gordon whose 'Just A Little Bit' became an R&B standard. He also worked for a long while with Freddy King's road band, before finally returning to his roots near Nashville, Tenn. Al Garner was featured on the 'Blues Across America' anthology, and cut a CD for the Dutch Black magic label in the late '90s. He still lives in Nashville and is hoping for a couple more good years in the music game before hanging up his rock'n'roll shoes.
No one deserves it more than the hard working Al.
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Chicago native and long-time resident Lou Pride made his first ever UK tour with Mo'Indigo in April 2004.
In 2005 Lou released a great new CD 'Keep on Believing" ( www.severnrecords.com ) available in Europe through Proper Distribution. The CDs liner includes a nice tribute from Lou to Harry and Mo'Indigo.
Lou Pride makes only his second ever UK tour in November 2006 with Mo'Indigo - see Gig Guide for details
Born in 1936, Jones moved to Chicago as a teenager, shortly after falling under the spell of the blues during a Joe Hill Louis performance in Memphis. Primed for the Windy City, he soon caught Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and moved into an apartment with harmonica player Walter McCollum with whom he formed his first band. He worked with Junior Wells and Freddy King before moving back to Nashville and beginning a career as a studio musician. In the early ‘60s, he formed the Imperial Seven and they found steady work at the New Era Club, where he crossed paths with a young Jimi Hendrix—then playing alongside future Band Of Gypsies bassist Billy Cox in the King Casuals—who often showed up to sit in and glean tips from Jones.
By mid-decade he was playing along side Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown on Hoss Allen’s mind-blowing Shindig-style television dance show The!!!!Beat, where he renewed his acquaintance with frequent guest Freddy King. Shortly thereafter, he joined the King Casuals, who were signed by Brunswick Records in 1968. The band’s trio of singles for the label, commencing with the apocalyptically-named “It’s Gonna Be Good” clear on through the crackling “Soul Poppin’” and a soul rendition of Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” can only be termed—in the perfectly succinct words of the Funky Sixteen Corners website—as “prime examples of blues players getting funky.” Indeed, Jones’ twangy guitar is at the forefront throughout.
After a few singles on Atlanta’s Peachtree Records, Jones played with Bobby “Blue” Bland before retiring and then resurfacing in the late ‘90s to reclaim his crown with new albums on the Black Magic and Northern Blues labels.