This article refers to the musician. For the district attorney of Travis County, Texas, see Ronnie Earle.
Ronnie Earl
(born Ronald Horvath
, March 10, 1953, New York City, New York [1]) is an American blues guitarist and music instructor.
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RONNIE EARL TICKETS
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Career
Earl collected blues,
jazz,
rock and
soul records while growing up. He studied American History at
C.W. Post College on Long Island for a year and a half, then moved to Boston to pursue a
Bachelor's Degree in Special Education and Education at
Boston University where he would graduate in 1975.
[2] He spent a short time teaching handicapped children. It was during his college years that he attended a
Muddy Waters concert at the Jazz Workshop in Boston. After seeing Waters perform in a close setting, Earl took a serious interest in the guitar, which he had first picked up in 1973. His first job was as a rhythm guitarist at The Speakeasy
[3], a blues club in Cambridge, MA. In addition to playing in the Boston blues scene, Earl traveled twice by
Greyhound Bus to Chicago, where he was introduced to the Chicago blues scene by
Koko Taylor. Later he would travel down South to New Orleans and Austin Texas, where he would spend time with
Kim Wilson,
Jimmy Vaughan and The
Fabulous Thunderbirds. In 1979 he joined The
Roomful of Blues as
lead guitarist for the
Providence,
Rhode Island band. It was also around this time that he adopted the last name of "Earl". As he put it, "Muddy Waters would invite me onstage, but he could never say my last name. So because I liked
Earl Hooker, I took the last name of "Earl".
During his eight year tenure with The Roomful of Blues, Earl continued to refine his own style and the result was a jazzy, soulful blues style, as well as his slow burn style which fans found both mesmerizing and exhilarating. He began performing
solo in 1986, in addition to playing with Roomful of Blues, and he released his first solo
album on the
Black Top Records label with a quartet that focused on blues
instrumentals. After leaving Roomful of Blues, he began collaborations with contemporaries Ron Levy and
Jerry Portnoy,
Earl King,
Jimmy Rogers, and
Jimmy Witherspoon. It was also around this time that Earl got treatment for a
substance addiction problem.
In 1988 Earl formed his own band that he called The Broadcasters, named after the first Fender guitar which originally had been labeled The Broadcaster and was distributed in 1950. The first group of Broadcasters included Darrell Nulisch (vocalist),
Jerry Portnoy (harmonica), Steve Gomes (bass), and Per Hanson (drums). In 1988 they released their first album,
Soul Searchin
, followed by
Peace of Mind
in 1990. The current group of Broadcasters, Jimmy Mouradian (bass), Dave Limina (organ), and
Lorne Entress (drums), began playing together prior to the 2003 release of
I Feel Like Going On
and in 2007 released
Hope Radio
, their fourth release from
Stony Plain Records [4] and Earl's twenty second album. In 2008, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters celebrated 20 years as a band.
Earl is a two-time
W. C. Handy Blues Music Award winner as Guitar Player of the Year. For five years he was an
Associate Professor of Guitar at
Berklee College of Music and in 1995 he released
Ronnie Earl: Blues Guitar with Soul
, an instructional VHS tape that was then rereleased in DVD format in 2005. Earl was also the blues instructor at the 'National Guitar Summer Workshop'. His albums primarily consist of strong instrumental compositions and traditional covers.
In the late 1990s, Earl was diagnosed with
depression, forcing him to cut back on his performances and now primarily tours in the New England area.
In early 2004, Earl's "Hey Jose" won in The 3rd Annual
Independent Music Awards for Best Blues/R&B Song.
[5]
See also
- List of blues musicians
- San Francisco Blues Festival
- Long Beach Blues Festival
- Black Top Records catalog
- List of guitarists by genre
References
- Allmusic biography - accessed February 2008
- Ronnie Earl
- The Blues Audience Speakeasy article
- Stony Plain Records: Canada's Roots, Rock, Country, Folk & Blues Label
- Independent Music Awards - 3rd Annual Winners