Highs & Lows Bernard Allison

• 1So Excited03:24
• 2Highs & Lows03:32
• 3Strain On My Heart04:03
• 4My Way Or The Highway03:59
• 5Side Step04:21
• 6Hustler04:01
• 7Now You Got It03:49
• 8I Gave It All04:57
• 9My Kinda Girl04:00
• 10Satisfy Her Needs04:24
• 11Last Night04:41
• Total Runtime45:11

Info for Highs & Lows

There’s nothing like the sound of a world-class bluesman getting back to business. Last October, when Bernard Allison returned to his old haunt of Bessie Blue Studios, Tennessee, to be greeted by fabled producer and career-long collaborator Jim Gaines, it felt like coming home.

And when Allison fired up the amps, counted in the band and embarked upon his latest studio album, Highs And Lows, everything felt right with the world. “Just to be able to create music again after the pandemic,” he says of that long-awaited rebirth, “was incredible.”

For 56 years, music has been Bernard Allison’s essence. As the youngest son of the much-missed Chicago bandleader Luther Allison, he was a bluesman from birth, naturally drawn to this ancient music that seemed to heal deep wounds, and held spellbound by early encounters with heavyweights like Muddy Waters, Albert King and Hound Dog Taylor.

Shuttled between Florida and Illinois as a child, but never separated from his guitar, by 12, Bernard was a fireball player himself, and at 18, he commanded instant respect as his dad’s guest at the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival.

One week after graduating high school, Bernard cut his teeth on the road with Koko Taylor’s Blues Machine lineup – and ended up staying for most of the ’80s. By the close of the decade, however, he assumed a twin identity, leading and writing for his father’s band, while forging a solo career that exploded in Europe off the back of early albums like The Next Generation (1990), No Mercy (1994) and Funkifino (1995). “My dad always told me,” he says of his talent for splicing blues with funk, rock and R&B, “don’t let them label you like they labelled me, as Chicago blues.”

Across his respected three-decade career, Bernard has certainly tasted the highs. Just ask him for his memories of jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughan on his 16th birthday.“He contacted my mom and said he and Double Trouble were going to surprise me after their show.” Or being given a lesson by the Texas tornado himself, “Johnny Winter sat me down and taught me how to play slide in open tuning.”

But even when the lows bit – like losing Luther to cancer in 1997, just as his career was peaking – Bernard has defied his circumstances. That same year’s solo album, Keepin’ The Blues Alive, might as well have been his mission statement, and Bernard has spent the last quarter-century both honouring his father and exploring his own voice during a flourishing solo career that includes 2018’s highly acclaimed Let It Go. “This album,” noted Blues Rock Review, “shows his mastery of the blues.”

Now, released in February 2022 on Ruf Records, Highs And Lows sees Bernard continue that quest, acknowledge his lineage through two classic songs by his father – Gave It All and Now You Got It – and offer nine new originals either written solo or alongside a tight circle of trusted collaborators.

Of course, Jim Gaines needs no introduction: this production legend has helmed records from stars like Huey Lewis and Santana, not to mention working with Luther and bringing four of Bernard’s past albums over the line (Times Are Changing, Across The Water, Let It Go, and Songs From The Road). But while Gaines’ ear was invaluable on Highs And Lows, just as important was the atmosphere that his rapport with Bernard and the band brought to the sessions.

“Recording with Jim is always an honour and the biggest highlight of any session,” says Bernard. “He’s part of the Allison family, with the relationship with my father and multiple recordings with us both. We have lots of laughs while getting things done. We’ve also got George Moye on bass and Dylan Salfer on guitar from my touring band. Toby Lee Marshall played keyboards on a few tracks, along with the fantastic session drummer Steve Potts, who also played on my dad's recordings. My sax player José James added parts on a few songs, while my godfather Bobby Rush guests on Hustler and my old Canadian friend Colin James is on My Way Or The Highway. We all enjoy making music as a team.”

You’ll hear that camaraderie on Highs And Lows: a record that fuses stinging musicianship with songs written to soundtrack everything that life can throw at a man, for good and bad. Try the irresistible groove of Hustler: a funk gem written by Bernard with Andrew Thomas, whose horn-and-harp groove evokes the strut of the title character (“I’m a natural-born hustler,” he sings. “It’s all in my blood”). Or the masterful Last Night, which shifts tempo from an upbeat chop to a weeping slow-blues, capturing the changing moods of a man chasing his runaround woman.

As for the title track, Bernard says it speaks for anyone left bemused by life’s rollercoaster: “It’s a part of life, the ups and downs that everyone deals with.”

Right now, with a new album of stellar material to take out on his New Year tour, Bernard Allison is back in the ascendency – and the man can’t wait to return to his natural habitat. “The song So Excited is basically about the excitement of being able to be back on the road again,” he says. “I think everyone can relate to that.”

Bernard Allison, vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, organ guitar (track 4, 6, 10)
George Moye, bass
Dylan Salfer, rhythm guitar
Steve Potts, drums
Jose Ned James, saxophone (tracks 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11), tambourine (track 11)
Toby Lee Marshall, Hammond B3 (tracks 3, 8, 9, 11), Wurlitzer Piano (track 3)
Colin James, vocals, rhythm and lead guitar (track 4)
Bobby Rush, vocals, Harmonica (track 6)

Bernard Allison
was introduced to the roots of black music and playing electric guitar by his father, the blues legend Luther Allison.

He joined the tourband of Luther Allison in 1989 after a furious collaboration of 'Father & Son' at the '89 Chicago Blues Festival. Bernard released his first solo album in 1990 and the title was program: 'The Next Generation'. He started touring with his own group all over Europe and released several albums, taking the tradition of black music he grew up with into the new century melting the influences into his own brand - Bernard Allison.

"It's just a big pleasure for me to continue my father's legacy, but you know I don't go out and try to be Luther Allison. I just go and do what I've learned from my Dad and the likes of Koko Taylor, or Stevie Ray Vaughan or Albert King. So, I'm trying to keep the blues alive Bernard Allison style." (Bernard Allison)

Born in Chicago on November 26th, 1965, the youngest of nine children Bernard Allison was first introduced to the roots of black music and the art of the electric guitar by his father, the late great Luther Allison. Bernard made his first appearance on record at age 13, when he played on a live LP his father recorded in Peoria, IL.

"I didn't start to play 'til I was maybe 10 years of age" Bernard recalled "I picked up the guitar, listened to records. I was in grade school and I played with the high school jazz band. They thought I was reading the sheet music, but actually I was making up everything I could play."

Soon after graduating from High School, he began a three-year guitar apprenticeship in Koko Taylor's high-flying Blues Machine. He also played in the late Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars and performed with his Dad at the 1983 Blues Festival - one of the event's highlights. Along the way, Bernard picked up slide guitar tips from Johnny Winter and in the 80's also learned from the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.

With those experiences under his belt, Bernard moved to Paris in 1989 to live and play the blues with his father. He joined the tourband of Luther Allison after a furious collaboration of "Father & Son" at the '89 Chicago Blues Festival. A recording of this formation is to be heard on the Luther Allison album "Let's Try It again" (RUF Records). Bernard released his first solo album in 1990 with the significant title "The Next Generation". In 1999, two years after Luther passed away, Bernard decided to move back to the States to go back to his roots and push his career in his native country. Bernard seems to have inherited Luther's knack for igniting audiences, but he's no clone of his famous father. He is definitely blazing his own path with a style that reflects a unique mix of traditional and modern influences. The Allison torch has been passed, and it's clear that Bernard takes his role as its bearer very seriously. He's assumed the challenge of keeping the blues alive and growing - a commitment he renews every time he takes the stage.

In 2004/2005, Bernard Allison released his 6th album on Ruf Records, "Higher Power". Whether you pay your respects to Bernard Allison as one of the high powered blues guitarists in the world or you, like Bernard, pay your respects to that Higher Power that guides you through life, these are 13 songs Bernard sings that will speak to you.

Bernard totes the same smokin' six string shooter that his late father Luther Allison assaulted the blues with. And he is blessed with his father's soulful voice, spiritual devotion, and a musical freedom which experiments with the blues.

"In order for anything to expand, you have to take a risk," says Bernard. "Blues is about experimenting and getting your feelings across to someone else. And if you want to keep it going, people are going to have to give it all a chance because we're losing all our creators. Because I've been taking risks on every album I've recorded, this record is just a logical progression from everything else I've done. Instead of playing rippin' 12 bar blues guitar over and over, there are bluesy songs, soul, funk, R&B songs and a couple of rock things which shows the overall musicianship of Bernard Allison."

The major risk Bernard takes here is in his song writing, where he is confident enough to strip away the layers and bare himself to the world. It has taken Bernard a long time to feel free to talk or write a song about what's going on within him or his personal tragedies. After decades of chasing the muse, Bernard is now settled down raising a family without the old personal vices. Thus the music he's written speaks of the inner peace and companionship every human searches for. The CD opens with Bernard's trademark blues rock guitar, but it rocks out with a moral. Therapists recommend getting problems out, instead of concealing them. In the highly personal opening song "I've Learned My Lesson," Bernard sheds himself of any disguises and admits to the world the inner personal problems that have held him back. That is until his personal Higher Power delivered him safely to inner peace.

Other original songs like "Stay With Me Tonight" or "Next To You" speak intimately about his love of the security of his family. While in other songs like "New Life," Bernard goes even further by apologizing to those he's hurt by word or deed.

And that's the magic power of the blues. If Bernard's honesty touches just one person with a similar struggles then the power of the blues works. Then Bernard becomes the higher power by healing another troubled soul. "Musically and lyrically this is definitely a mature effort. I've been through a lot since the passing of my father. I'm married and I have started my own family. This music comes from everyday responsibility and lifestyle. I'm calling the album Higher Power because there were times when I had to pray to my own higher power to help me through. Immediately after my father's death I was still touring, I wanted to continue because that was what he wanted me to do. I feel that with his presence, he's still, even today, with me everywhere I go, and the help of my higher power, there's no going wrong. That is the message in many of these songs."

Amid all the daily pop culture pressures to be the next American Idol why does Bernard stay rooted in the blues? "The blues is my roots. Regardless of how far outside of the blues I reach for tones, I can't ever leave the blues. Whenever I play, all those guitar parts are Luther Allison coming through me. My dad was the same way, he wasn't all blues. He loved Otis Redding or Chuck Berry. I'm just showing where my influences come from. And respecting the people who got me to this point."

This album contains no booklet.