Larry Garner

Larry Garner (born July 8, 1952, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American Louisiana blues musician best known for his 1994 album "Too Blues".

Garner grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his first inspiration being the guitar-playing preacher Reverend Utah Smith.  Garner made acquaintance with local musicians such as Lonesome Sundown, Silas Hogan, Guitar Kelley, and Tabby Thomas. His musical influences include Hogan, Clarence Edwards, Jimi Hendrix, and Henry Gray.  He was taught to play guitar by his uncle and two other elders.  Garner completed military service in Korea and returned to Baton Rouge, working part-time in music and full-time at a Dow Chemical plant.

Garner won the International Blues Challenge in 1988, and his first two albums, "Double Dues" and "Too Blues", were released by the British JSP label. The latter album's title was in reply to a label executive who judged Garner's original demo to be "too blues".  Thomas' nightclub, Tabby's Blues Box, provided Garner with a playing base in the 1980s and gave him the subject matter for the strongest song on "Double Dues", "No Free Rides".

"You Need to Live a Little" (1996) was followed by "Standing Room Only" (1998), "Baton Rouge" (1999), and 2000's "Once Upon the Blues".   Baton Rouge's  1999 track, "Go To Baton Rouge," offered a tourist guide to Louisiana music spots.

In 2008, Garner was treated for a serious illness that was the inspiration for his 2008 album, Here Today Gone Tomorrow

(Larry Garner at Riverfront Blues Festival, Wilmington, Delaware 2006)