Bernard Allison

Bernard Allison (born November 26, 1965, Chicago, Illinois) is a blues guitarist. His father, Luther Allison, was a Chicago blues musician. Allison moved back and forth between Illinois and Florida, but remained close to his father's music whether with him or not, listening to his father's albums when they were apart.  He accompanied his father to blues festivals in the early 1970s.  There he was introduced to Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor, and Albert King, amongst others.

Allison taught himself to play in Florida while his father was touring internationally and displayed his early skills to his father when he was 12.  His father bought him a Stratocaster guitar but required him to remain in school, although he did allow his son to join him on stage at the age of 18 at the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival. A week after his graduation from high school, he was invited to join Koko Taylor's touring band. During that time, he further honed his skills with the tutelage of Johnny Winter, whom he had met when younger, and Stevie Ray Vaughan whom he met in the first year of his career.

In 1985, he tried out his headline act, 'Bernard Allison and Back Talk', largely active in Canada, although he remained with Koko Taylor.  He became the European bandleader for his father's touring band late in 1989, and with his father's assistance and the loan of his father's musicians recorded his debut album, "The Next Generation".  Over the next several years, Allison and his father would continue to collaborate closely, with Allison co-writing and arranging material on his father's final three albums and Luther Allison offering ongoing advice to his son's band. 

Allison released three more albums in Europe, "Hang On"," No Mercy", and "Funkifino", and in 1997— the year of his father's death— released his critically acclaimed U.S. debut, "Keepin' the Blues Alive". The album was followed by a U.S. tour and further releases. Allison's 2002 album "Storms of Life" charted at #5 on the Top Blues Albums charts. Despite the success of his tours and albums in the U.S., Allison remains based in Paris.

(Bernard Allison at Poconos Blues Festival 1995)