Lazy Lester

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Lazy Lester (born Leslie Johnson in Torras, Louisiana, 20 June 1933) is a swamp blues harmonica master whose half-century career spans the 1950s to the 2000s. Best known for regional hits recorded with Jay Miller's Crowley, Louisiana-based Excello Records, Lester also contributed as a side-man to swamp blues classics recorded by Excello label-mates including Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim, and Katie Webster. His songs have been covered by (among others) The Kinks, Freddy Fender, Dwight Yoakam, Dave Edmunds, Raful Neal, Anson Funderburgh, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. In the "comeback" stage of his career (since the late 1980s) he has recorded new albums backed by, among others, Mike Buck, Sue Foley, Gene Taylor, Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, and Jimmie Vaughan (ex-Fabulous Thunderbirds brother of Stevie Ray Vaughan), and has, of late, reaped accolades and awards as a surviving blues legend (albeit of the second tier).

[edit] Excello Records Career Phase (1950s/60s)

In the mid-'50s, Lazy Lester rambled the margins of the Louisiana blues scene. According to Rolling Stone (23 February 2006), blues guitar legend Buddy Guy, before moving to Chicago, had played in Louisiana "with some of the old masters: Lightnin' Hopkins, Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo." When Guy did leave for Chicago, in 1957, Lester replaced him, on guitar, in a local band — even though Lester, at the time, did not own a guitar.

Legend has it (and Lester has confirmed in interviews) that Lazy Lester's career took off when he happened to find a seat next to bluesman Lightnin' Slim on a bus transporting Slim to an Excello recording session. When Slim got off, Lester followed. At the studio, the scheduled harmonica player on the gig happened not to show. Slim and Lester spent the better part of the afternoon trying to hunt him down, unsuccessfully. So Lester volunteered that he could play a bit of harmonica himself. Lester's work on that first Lightnin' Slim session led label boss Jay Miller to record Lester solo — and also to use Lester as a back-up multi-instrumentalist on percussion, guitar, bass, as well as harmonica on sessions headlined by virtually every other Excello artist, including, notably, Slim Harpo.

Percussion on these sessions went well beyond the traditional drum kit, and included pretty much anything that Lester could bang, including rolled-up newspaper on a cardboard box.

Miller dubbed Lester "Lazy" because of his laconic, laid-back style. Lester's unique vocal delivery — which has been called "marbles-in-the-mouth" — makes his singing style almost a "blues Tom Waits." At least one critic has opined that Lester's vocals actually improved in the comeback phase of his career, as his voice aged. By any reckoning, Lester surely ranks among the most distinctive blues singers of his era.

Perhaps even more than his vocal delivery, Lester may be best remembered for a core handful of songs, local hits in Lester's original recordings, that were later covered repeatedly by a wide range of rock, county, blues, and even Tex-Mex stars, chiefly: "I'm a Lover Not a Fighter", "I Hear You Knockin'", "Sugar-Coated-Love", and "Bloodstains on the Wall."

One Lester classic, however, appears to have eluded cover treatment because of its uniquely-bespoke lyrics: "They Call Me Lazy" (But Goodness Knows I'm Only Tired).

Lester says he himself wrote these songs — but almost all are officially credited to the pen of Excello Records head Miller, with a few credited to Lester and Miller jointly. The theme of white executive taking advantage of black blues artists is a thread that runs throughout the history of the blues. Lester says he received few to zero royalties for re-releases of his music and covers of his songs, which has embittered him, made him skeptical of the music industry, and explains why his post-1960s recording career has been sporadic, at best. Indeed, by the late '60's Lester had given up on the music industry entirely, working manual labor and pursuing his favorite hobby — fishing. Lester drifted up to Pontiac Michigan, living with the sister of his better-known (but by then deceased) former friend, label-mate, and session-employer: Slim Harpo.

[edit] Comeback Career Phase (late 1980s to present)

In 1971, Fred Reif, a blues aficionado, set up a Lightnin' Slim gig at the venerable University of Chicago Folk Festival; Reif tracked down Lester, and — after a series of bus-travel mishaps — got Lester to accompany him on the one-off gig. Years passed. The late '80s found Reif and Lester both in Michigan, from where Reif orchestrated a comeback, touring and recording. By that time, Excello-style swamp blues was a fading but cherished memory. Lester, the sub-genre's last man standing, was the only one who might launch its renaissance.

With Reif prodding him on, playing both chauffer and rub-board, Lester recorded and played around the country and abroad, backed by pick-up blues bands including, frequently, Loaded Dice. The gigs were surprisingly animated — no one gets a crowd dancing like Lazy Lester. These performances ranged from blues clubs to foreign and domestic blues festivals to star-studded sessions at Austin's Antones club — to at least one large traditional white ballroom wedding.

Once burned, though, Lester remained wary of the music industry: He was persistently frustrated by fans soliciting autographs on records he had never been paid for. So even as the 90's blues revival crescendoed, Lester refused to be tied down by a multi-album record deal. He now scrutinized one-off recording contracts, and (unsuccessfully) sought help recovering lost Excello-era royalties.

Lester's recordings in this period are on some important blues labels: Alligator, Telarc, Antones, besides releases in Europe, where Lazy Lester albums have long stayed in print. On one record, Jimmie Vaughan paid an installment on the Fabulous Thunderbirds' significant debt to Lester by contributing an album's worth of guitar licks. There were also re-releases of Excello material (for which Lester says he remains unpaid).

During this period Lester got talked into recording a now-unobtainable six-song EP for an audiophile label, a limited edition high-quality-vinyl direct-to-disc LP — perhaps the ultimate Lazy Lester collectible.

If disenchanted, Lester to the end retains not only his harmonica, guitar, and vocal talents (the songwriting that had been muse to The Kinks and Dwight Yoakum having dried up long before), but also a quick mind, a sparkling sense of humor, and his inexhaustible storehouse of Southern-inflected aphoristic similes ("...like a saddle fits a pig"; "...like love and gold: Hard to get and hard to hold"). By the 2000s, as one of ever-fewer survivors of his generation of blues greats, Lester (with Reif still sporadically at his side) at last came to reap some occasional, well-deserved accolades — including, in September 2002, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Blues Society. Inexplicably at the show, Lester replaced the word "Chicgo" in the song "Sweet Home Chicago" with "Cocomo".

Indeed, in February 2003 Martin Scorsese included Lester in his all-star blues tribute concert at Radio City Music Hall, a record of which was released as the film and album Lightning in a Bottle. The group photograph inside the album depicts Lester grinning, dead-center among peers and musical progeny including B.B. King, Solomon Burke, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Buddy Guy, Levon Helm, Chuck D, The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, John Fogerty, and Aerosmith.

[edit] Discography

various Excello singles, 1960s
True Blues, circa 1966, Excello LP 8006 SO-1
Rides Again, 1987, King Snake KS007 (recorded in England 25-28 May 1987 with English back-up)
Harp & Soul, 1988, Alligator 4768 (recorded 1987 or 1988 feat. Lucky Peterson and Kenny Neal)
Lazy Lester, 1989, Flyright (France) 007 (previously-unreleased '60s Excello session takes)
I'm a Lover Not a Fighter 1994, Excello/Ace 518 ('60s Excello takes)
I Hear You Knockin'!, 1994, Excello/Avi 3003 ('60s Excello singles)
All Over You, 1998, Antones ANT 10042 (recorded 1997, feat. Derek O'Brien, Sue Foley, Sarah Brown)
Lazy Lester (audiophile EP), circa 2001, APO 003 (recorded 12-13 October 2000 feat. Henry Gray)
Superharps II, 2001, Telarc 83514 (recorded 2000 or 2001 co-billed with Carey Bell, Raful Neal, Snooky Pryor)
Blues Stop Knockin', 2001, Antones TMG-ANT 0051 (recorded 2000 or 2001 feat. Jimmie Vaughan)