Bernard Allison

Bernard Allison is an American blues guitarist and singer from Chicago, Illinois, born in 1965 and based in Paris, France. He is the son of Chicago blues musician Luther Allison. His work is associated with blues, blues rock and electric blues.

Early life and influences

Allison moves between Illinois and Florida during his youth and stays close to his father’s music, listening to his albums when they are apart. He accompanies Luther Allison to blues festivals in the early 1970s, where he meets musicians including Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor and Albert King. He teaches himself to play in Florida while his father tours internationally, and he shows his early playing to his father when he is 12. Luther Allison gives him a Stratocaster guitar and insists that he remain in school.

Career beginnings

At 18, Allison joins his father on stage at the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival. A week after graduating from high school, he is invited to join Koko Taylor’s touring band. Around this period he continues developing his style with guidance from Johnny Winter, whom he has met earlier in life, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, whom he meets in the first year of his career.

Band work and recordings

From 1985, while still with Koko Taylor, he also leads his own act, Bernard Allison and Back Talk, which is mainly active in Canada. In late 1989 he becomes the bandleader for his father’s touring band in Europe. With his father’s assistance, and using the loan of his father’s musicians, he records his debut album, The Next Generation, in Paris around Christmas that year.

He and his father continue to work together, with Bernard co-writing and arranging material on Luther Allison’s final three albums. Luther also gives ongoing advice to his son’s band. Bernard Allison then releases three more albums in Europe: Hang On, No Mercy and Funkifino.

U.S. releases and later work

In 1997, the year of his father’s death, he releases his first U.S. album, Keepin' the Blues Alive. It is followed by a U.S. tour and further releases. His 2002 album Storms of Life reaches number five on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. He remains based in Paris despite touring and releasing albums in the United States.

In 2010, Toby Lee Marshall joins Allison’s touring rhythm section in Europe and appears on the 2011 release Live at the Jazzhaus. Allison releases his thirteenth album, In The Mix, in 2015.