|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
|
|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
Lucky Peterson
By Ken Shimamoto
B&B Blues Room is a little off the beaten path for the J&J’s/Black Dog/Keys Lounge set. Drive by it on a dark night when there isn’t a show booked and you might well miss it. Recently reopened following a hiatus, it’ll be a worthwhile destination on Saturday nights through the end of October while triple-threat Dallas-based bluesman Lucky Peterson is in residence.
Forget the recent proliferation of teen-age blues guitarists, who were so prevalent for a while that it seemed “Jonbenet” was a likelier name for a budding bluesman’s guitar than “Lucille.” Back in the 1960s, you see, the Buffalo, N.Y.-born Peterson, the son of bluesman/club owner James Peterson, had a nationwide R&B hit as a 6-year-old Hammond organist with “1-2-3-4,” produced by Chess Records bossman Willie Dixon. Appearances on The Tonight Show and Ed Sullivan’s program followed, along with a laudatory write-up in Newsweek. By age eight, he was doubling on guitar. By his mid-twenties, he’d logged years on the road in the bands of Little Milton and Bobby “Blue” Bland.
In his adulthood, Peterson has emerged as a powerful vocalist as well as a versatile instrumentalist. Since the ’80s, he’s released a string of albums for the Alligator, Verve, and Polygram labels, fusing the slick chitlin’ circuit aesthetics of his former employers with a more earthy Chicago style. (His 1992 Verve debut, I’m Ready, was a particular favorite of mine.) His most recent release is last year’s Double Dealin’ on the revived Blue Thumb label.
A regular fixture on the Dallas blues scene, Peterson rarely ventures across the Tarrant County line. Blues aficionados should flock in droves to B&B’s.
Sat at B&B Blues Room, 2001 S Riverside, FW. 817-535-5577.
Email this Article...
