| Koerner, Ray & Glover | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Genres | Blues |
| Labels | Elektra, Mill City, Red House, Tim Kerr Records |
| Past members | |
| Tony "Little Sun" Glover "Spider" John Koerner Dave "Snaker" Ray |
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Koerner, Ray & Glover is the name of a blues band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band featured Tony "Little Sun" Glover on harmonica, "Spider" John Koerner on guitar and vocals, and Dave "Snaker" Ray on guitar and vocals. Koerner, Ray & Glover were part of the early folk/blues explosion in the 1960s.
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Koerner, Ray & Glover met as students at the University of Minnesota. Their common musical interest in folk and blues led them to record and perform in various configurations, doing solo turns and duets, but less as a trio together. This led Ray to suggest it would be more accurate to refer to them as "Koerner and/or Ray and/or Glover".[1] Their breakthrough album, Blues, Rags and Hollers was released in 1963. They recorded two further albums for Elektra, but continued their ventures into solo albums supporting each other in both recording and touring. Glover wrote one of the very first instructional books on how to play blues harmonica.[2]
The trio appeared at the Newport Folk Festival and their performance was recorded for the Vanguard Records album Newport Folk Festival 1964: Evening Concerts III and filmed for the documentary Festival in 1967.[3]
They played frequently in Dinkytown, where they met Bob Dylan on his first visit to the Ten O'Clock Scholar club, influencing him and others such as Bonnie Raitt.[4] In the late '60s they played at the Triangle Bar on the West Bank, which served as a Counter Culture venue during the Vietnam War.
They would occasionally do reunion concerts until Ray's death in November 2002. Koerner and Glover continue to occasionally perform together.[2][5]
In 1983 The Minnesota Music Academy named Koerner, Ray and Glover "Best Folk Group" and in 1985 inducted them into the MMA Hall of Fame.[6]
In 2008, Koerner, Ray & Glover were inducted into the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame under the category Blues Recordings for Blues, Rags and Hollers.[7]