Louisiana Red(1932-2012)

Blues guitarist Louisiana Red was born Iverson Minter in Vicksburg, MS, in 1936. His childhood in Mississippi was not an easy one--his mother died shortly after he was born and his father was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan--and he taught himself how to play the guitar and the harmonica. He moved to Pittsburgh, PA, in 1945,but the only musical jobs he could get was playing on street corners for spare change. He relocated to Chicago and had a little better luck there--he managed to record a few singles for Checker Records--but he enlisted in the US Air FOrce in the early 1950s and and left in 1958. He got back into the music business after his discharge, and in the early 1960s recorded his debut album, "Lowdown Back Porch Blues", for Roulette Records. In 1971 he recorded the album "Louisiana Red Sings the Blues" for Atco Records, but it didn't sell well and the label dropped him. Eventually he moved to Europe, where he continued to record and perform.'