Eureka Springs Blues Weekend 2012
May 31 through June 3, 2012
Artist Bios

Lazy Lester- The Auditorium
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Born in Torras, Louisiana in 1933, Lazy Lester's first big break was when his friend Buddy Guy moved to Chicago, leaving Lester to play guitar for the local blues band, even though he didn't even own a guitar at the time. After playing clubs and juke joints around Louisiana, Lester's career took off when he found a seat next to Lightnin' Slim on a bus transporting Slim to an Excello recording session. At the studio, the scheduled harmonica player did not appear. Slim and Lester spent the afternoon unsuccessfully trying to find him, when Lester volunteered that he could play the harmonica. Excello producer Jay Miller went on to use Lester as a guitar player, percussionist and harmonica player on dozens of recordings, including hit recordings by Slim Harpo. While at Excello, Lester wrote several songs, including the hits "I'm A Lover, Not A Fighter", "I Hear You Knocking", and "Sugar Coated Love". Lester's songs have been recorded on hundreds of albums by diverse artists like Slim Harpo, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Kinks, Dave Edmunds, Dwight Yokum, Dexter Turner, Ringo Star, Freddie Fender, Fats Domino, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and many more.

One of Lazy Lester's most memorable performances was as part of Martin Scorsese's "Lightning in a Bottle" blues tribute concert filmed at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. Lester performed along with BB King, Solomon Burke, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Buddy Guy, Levon Helm, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Chuck D, The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, John Fogerty and Aerosmith. Lazy Lester is nominated for three Blues Music Awards this year, Instrumentalist- Harmonica, Traditional Blues Album for You Better Listen, and Traditional Blues Male Artist. In total, Lester has had six BMA nominations, winning a BMA for Contemporary Blues Album (Foreign) for Rides Again. He has also been honored by Living Blues magazine as Most Outstanding Musician on Harmonica.

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