Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters

For a guy who didn’t even pick up a guitar until he was 20, Ronnie Earl sure moved fast. Six years later, in 1979, he replaced Duke Robillard in Roomful of Blues, the Rhode Island-based jump-blues band, with which he spent the next eight years. He also made a few LPs as side projects in the early ’80s with his band, the Broadcasters, before leaving ROB and going out full-time with the Broadcasters. In 1991 he hooked up with harpist/vocalist Sugar Ray Norcia, with whom he recorded Surrounded by Love for the Black Top label. It was this version of the Broadcasters that flew out West in May 1991 for four gigs—the first of them at Chico’s famed Blue Max (where Herried Music is today). Whew! What a night that was! In 1993 Earl signed with Stony Plain, and this is his seventh CD for them that, like the others, features his guitar and the piano/B-3 of Dave Limina plus Jim Mouradian on bass and Lorne Entress on drums. Earl favors what I call “ethereal blues,” so I was surprised to hear him working out on Albert Collins’ “Backstroke.” Earl is a consummate musician and has honed his art to perfection. This is another masterpiece by a man who says, “Be kind. We need more love and forgiveness.”