Bluesman Louisiana Red, R.I.P.

Word comes to us from bluesman Bob Corritore via his newsletter that his friend and former musical partner Louisiana Red (a/k/a Iverson Minter) passed away on Saturday, February 25, 2012 in a German hospital after a brief illness. Red was 79 years old.

While there is plenty of confusion about the specifics of Red's life, there can be no debate over the great music that the talented singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player made throughout a lengthy career that spanned eight decades. Red recorded his first sides in 1949 as "Rocky Fuller" with producer Joe Von Battle; a couple of the songs would later be licensed by Chess and released on their Checkers Records subsidiary.

Red recorded his first full-length album, Lowdown Back Porch Blues, for Roulette Records in 1963, scoring a minor R&B chart hit with the single "Red's Dream." The artist would hit the Billboard singles chart in 1964 with "I'm Too Poor To Die," released by Glover Records. Red would record a single major label album, 1972's Louisiana Red Sings The Blues for Atco Records, but throughout the 1970s and '80s he mostly recorded for European labels like L + R Records and JSP Records.

In 1982, Red met his second wife Dora while on a European tour, and would re-locate to Germany, where he lived the rest of his life. He toured Europe frequently throughout the 1980s and '90s, seldom coming back to the United States, but when Earwig Records released his Sittin' Here Wonderin' album in 1995 - originally produced by Corritore back in 1982 - Earwig's Michael Frank coaxed the bluesman to perform stateside, and Red toured the U.S. frequently until his death.

Red hooked up with producer and musician Little Victor to record Back To The Black Bayou in 2008 for the Bluestown label; the album would be reissued worldwide by Germany's Ruf Records a year later. Back To The Black Bayou would earn Red a slew of Blues Music Award nominations, and would lead to his award as "Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year" in 2010. A collaboration with pianist David Maxwell resulted in the 2009 album You Got To Move, which won the duo a 2010 Blues Music Award for "Acoustic Album of the Year." Red teamed up again with Little Victor for his critically-acclaimed 2011 album, Memphis Mojo.

Much beloved by his many fans around the world, as well as by the musicians he worked with through the years, Louisiana Red was a one-of-a-kind talent. As Corritore said of Red in his newsletter announcing the bluesman's death, "he could create moods and textures, both musically and spiritually, and had the ability of falling so deep into his own songs that he would go to tears, making his audience cry with him. That was the gift of this great artist."

Find out more: Louisiana Red profile

Video: Louisiana Red & Little Victor's Juke Joint @ 2010 Blues Music Awards

Photo courtesy Louisiana Red