Lefty Dizz - Bad Avenue (CD)

Release Date: 10/21/22

Chicago Blues at it's rawest and hardest from a master guitarist and singer.

Lefty Dizz has become famous for his performance with members of the Rolling Stones on the recent video release of the Stones with Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge in the 1980s. There you see Keith and Ronnie backing Dizz, the rawest of the raw Chicago bluesman! Viewers of that startling performance will want more Lefty Dizz and this is it...

The 3rd Burnley Blues Festival took place over the weekend March 28 - April 1 in 1991. The festival had become established as the U.K.'s premier blues festival, with large audiences heading to see an array of visiting U.S. blues artists.

The bill featured bluesman Dr. Ross and '50s R&B star Rosco Gordon. JSP's John Stedman also
flew in Lefty Dizz and Johnny 'Big Moose' Walker (along with a four piece Chicago house band) for the festival with Lefty also playing the Gloucester Blues Festival that weekend.

Lefty and Moose had been long-time friends, recording and playing together on many occasions. In a 1987 interview Lefty told Norman Darwen that: 'Moose and me go back for ages, thirty years, from the Earl Hooker days. I was asked to make an album and I said: 'OK I'll do it - but I want Big Moose Walker on keyboards'.

As a left handed guitarist Lefty favoured a right-handed Fender Stratocaster - switching the strings and playing in a darkened room to learn the fret board. Basing himself on the South Side of Chicago he worked with with J.B. Lenoir, Lacy Gibson and Earl Hooker.

Having learned to play the guitar, harmonica, and bass by the time he was fourteen Big Moose was playing with local bands. 'I just stayed out there - great big hair and moustache at fourteen, they couldn't tell if I was grown or not.'

Big Moose once said: 'I never wanted to be a bandleader or have a big name. I just like to be in a band and make it sound good if I can.'

This 2CD set features tracks from Lefty's March 31 show at Burnley 1991 and tracks from Big Moose's March 28 performance. Plus rare 45s, unissued radio and live tracks.