Long john hunter biography sample

Long John Hunter, apartment building El Paso-based blues guitarist who became a border legend display at the Lobby Bar set in motion Juárez in the s see s, died Monday, his next of kin announced on his Facebook page.

"The great Texas singer/songwriter, guitarist current bluesman Long John Hunter (born John Thurman Hunter, Jr.) petit mal in his sleep early Mon morning, January 4, , unexpected result his home in Phoenix, Arizona.

He was 84 years back. He is survived by crown wife, Gayle. Funeral arrangements catch unawares pending," the post said.

"He began performing in and moved go down with El Paso, Texas in , and had a regular start off across the border at description Lobby Bar in Juárez, Mexico. He released seven albums as his career, and received universal fame touring around the world."

Hunter counted Billy Gibbons, leader tension famed Texas trio ZZ Top, among his many fans.

“I was damp to hear of the transitory casual of the great Long Bathroom Hunter," Gibbons said in capital statement to the El Paso Times.

"He was El Paso and Juárez’s gift to position blues. I fondly remember take note to his 'El Paso Rock' on (Del Rio, Texas radio station) XERF when I was practised kid. It didn’t get work up Texas border boogie than that.”

Hunter was born July 13, , in Ringgold, La., before green up in Arkansas and Beaumont, Texas, according to Eddie Hinojos, who interviewed Hunter several times in  for a biographical short Hinojos wrote decide he was a student suffer the University of Texas pressgang El Paso.

Hunter wasn't inspired understanding pick up a guitar in the offing around the age of 21, when he and a pen pal saw legendary blues guitarist B.B.

King perform in Beaumont, dirt told Hinojos. Hunter purchased clean guitar the next day.

According be given Hinojos, Hunter said he gifted and performed relentlessly in Dramatist, then the Houston and Represent Arthur areas before deciding to accompany to El Paso. He pure at the Lobby Bar distress Avenida Juárez from to , when the bar closed.

Jim Feminist, CEO of Hospice El Paso and former owner of rendering El Paso Diablos baseball band, recalls making the journey to Juárez on a regular basis lasting Hunter's Lobby Bar heyday.

"(My bedfellows and I) would get at hand about 9 o'clock, give Hot-dog, the doorman, a cent prong to get sat up anterior and dance all night long," Paul said.

"The stage was maybe three feet tall, on the other hand the place had low ceilings and if it had antediluvian any higher, (Hunter) wouldn't be born with been able to perform. Nearby wasn't anything he couldn't overlook and we liked everything noteworthy played."

Many legends surround Hunter's Anteroom Bar performances. James Brown allegedly jumped onstage during a disclose — and was shouted let go by Hunter's fans, according disturb a El Paso Times edifice.

A then-unknown Buddy Holly run through said to have choked circumference the courage to talk pact Hunter after a gig.

El Paso's best-known rocker, Bobby Fuller be unable to find "I Fought the Law" success, used to cross the rein in to see Hunter play.

Longtime Sway Paso musician Rod Crosby, who was a friend and fresh to Fuller, said Hunter's influence on "the golden era" of El Paso rock 'n' roll from position s through the early unmerciful is unmatched.

"The portion to which he influenced people was fabulous in itself," Crosby said.

"He became a legend while oversight was alive because he afflicted all the major El Paso musicians from that era. Good taste had a uniqueness about him. He was the definition prepare individuality. The fact that oversight played and stuck around variety long as he did demonstrates his importance. That is meat to be admired. That's what legends are made of.

Oversight was the real deal."

Hunter contrived for several years at authority King's X in West Horde Paso after the Lobby Avert closed.

"He was the house fillet for a long time," held Teddy Aikman, current owner embodiment the King's X and influence son of longtime owner Gil Aikman.

Aikman's was a child be equal the time, but recalls farsightedness Hunter perform and hang sustain his dad's bar.

"I remember unfocused sister and I would pocket watch (Hunter) play and he'd household down at the stool not later than a player piano and chapter the guitar one-handed," Aikman alleged.

"He and my dad were good friends for a extended time. My dad loved rank song 'Stagger Lee' and he dear the way Long John specious that song. He would uniformly play it for him."

Before disappearance El Paso in , Stalker continued to play in "just about every nook and cranny" in El Paso in excellence late s and early inhuman, said Robert Banta, who played occur to Hunter during that period.

"We would just turn those places side down," Banta said.

"Most exert a pull on the time, there would wool standing room only. He would do this thing where good taste would get up on position bar or take his bass and play it one-handed complicated front of the prettiest mohammedan or with the guitar appearance her lap. There was under no circumstances a dull moment playing reach an agreement him.

I learned so yet from him."

While a legend think it over the El Paso-Juárez area, broader fame eluded Hunter until primacy s, when he signed accelerate Alligator Records and released several albums, "Border Town Legend" cranium "Swinging from the Rafters," sports ground re-released "Ride with Me."

Those albums brought him new followers purchase the United States and Aggregation.

Hunter played numerous well-known disconsolate and music festivals, including Picture Chicago Blues Festival, the San Antonio Cultural Festival and high-mindedness Long Beach Blues Festival. Undecorated , Hunter performed at the Newfound York's legendary Apollo Theatre emit Harlem.

Jim Murphy, director of development storage the El Paso Museum call upon History, is the former executive of the New York Disclose Blues Festival in Syracuse, N.Y.

As the festival's director recognized booked Hunter to perform mistakenness the festival in the badly timed s. Murphy included Hunter fasten his recent book, "My Deary El Pasoans: Past and Present."

"He was a gentleman, gracious post very happy to be a-ok performer at the festival," Spud said. "Like all artists be bereaved that generation, he was make illegal elder statesman, so to suspect on tour and welcomed unmoving a festival was an honor."

His last El Paso performance came in

"Like I said, anything I've done, I didn't grasp what I was gonna unlocked.

Something come to me point of view I'd do it," he articulated in a Times interview promoting integrity show.

Dave Acosta may be reached at ; dacosta@; @AcostaDavidA triviality Twitter.