Lurrie Bell (born Lurrie C. Bell, December 13, 1958, Chicago, Illinois, United States)[1] is an American blues guitarist and singer. His father was renowned blues harmonica player Carey Bell.
Bell started playing guitar at the age of six, and in his teens he polished his skills playing with the legends of Chicago blues scene including Eddy Clearwater, Big Walter Horton and Eddie Taylor.
In the mid 1970s, he went on to join Koko Taylor's Blues Machine and he toured with the band for four years. He made his recording debut in 1977 appearing on his father's album Heartaches and Pain and also on Eddie C. Campbell's King of the Jungle.[1][2] It was around that time that he formed The Sons of Blues with musicians including Billy Branch on harmonica.[3] Three tracks of the band's recordings were featured in the Alligator Records compilation Living Chicago Blues Vol. 3 released in 1978. In 1989 he released his first solo effort, Everybody Wants To Win, on JSP Records.
Though Bell's career appeared to be headed in the right direction, drawing attention of the blues fans around the world as a young prodigy of the blues, he battled emotional problems and drug abuse for many years, which kept him away from performing on regular basis.[3]
He began a comeback in 1995 with the well-received album Mercurial Son, his first of several from the Delmark label. A series of albums followed thereafter, and he started to perform more frequently in the Chicago club and blues festival circuits.
Bell is featured on Gettin' Up – Live at Buddy Guy's Legends, Rosa's and Lurrie's Home, a 2007 CD and DVD release from Delmark, where he plays with his father Carey. Soon after this release, Carey died in May 2007 and this became his last recorded effort.
In 2014, Bell won a Blues Music Award for his track "Blues in My Soul", in the 'Song of the Year' category. He was nominated for a similar award in four other categories.[4] In 2015, Bell won a Blues Music Award in the 'Traditional Blues Male Artist' category.[5]
Bell's 2016 album, Can't Shake This Feeling,[6] was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.[7] Matthew Skoller's harmonica work featured prominently on the album,[8] and he was the record producer on Bell's earlier Let's Talk About Love and The Devil Ain't Got No Music albums.[9]
He became a 2024 inductee to the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame.[10]
