Many Blues artists begin playing at a very early age but Texas Blues guitarist and vocalist Long John Hunter proves that that isn't a prerequisite for being a master of the genre.
Born in Ringgold, Louisiana, in 1931, John Thurman Hunter Jr. grew up on a farm in Magnolia, Arkansas, before moving to Beaumont, Texas, to work in a box factory. It was there, at the age of 22, that he heard B. B. King and he went right out the next day to buy a guitar. A fortunate thing for all electric Blues fans.
One year later Hunter was playing like a master, headlining at the same Beaumont club where he had first seen King, had released his first single and adopted the name Long John.
His most important gig was at the Lobby Bar in Juarez, Mexico, starting in 1957, the year that he moved to El Paso. During his 13 years at the Lobby he played from dusk until dawn seven nights a week, earning the nicknames "The Border Town Legend" and "The King of the Night." They are well deserved epithets when you consider that many local clubs would use as many as three bands to cover the same schedule.
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The rowdy crowds of locals, cowboys, over-partying frat boys, and soldiers from nearby Fort Bliss reveled in Hunter's flamboyant showmanship and ability to wield a slashing electric guitar like a machete.
Hunkered down at the Lobby, it is no surprise that Hunter stayed a mostly local legend for many years. But in 1992 the release of Ride with Me cracked the ice to a wider audience. Soon after, the two excellent albums, Border Town Legend (1996) and Swinging from the Rafters (1997), built interest in Texas Blues in general and Long John Hunter in particular.
Several more albums have followed and I hope that "The Border Town Legend" will ultimately gain even more fans and record many more albums in coming years. Long John Hunter deserves no less.
