Larry Garner is an American Louisiana blues

Louisiana blues

Louisiana blues is a genre of blues music that developed in the period after World War II in the state of Louisiana. It is generally divided into two major sub-genres, with the jazz-influenced New Orleans blues based around the city and the slower tempo swamp blues incorporating influences from...

 musician best known for his 1994 album Too Blues.

Biography

Garner grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...

, with his first inspiration being the guitar-playing preacher Reverend Utah Smith. Garner made acquaintance with local musicians such as Lonesome Sundown

Lonesome Sundown

Cornelius Green , known professionally as Lonesome Sundown, was an American blues musician, best known for his recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...

, Silas Hogan

Silas Hogan

Silas Hogan was an American blues musician. Hogan most notably recorded "Airport Blues" and "Lonesome La La", was the front man of the Rhythm Ramblers, and became an inductee in the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame....

, Guitar Kelley and Tabby Thomas

Tabby Thomas

Tabby Thomas also known as Rockin' Tabby Thomas is an American Chicago blues musician...

. His musical influences include Hogan, Clarence Edwards

Clarence Edwards (blues musician)

Clarence Edwards was an American blues musician from Louisiana, best known for his recordings of "Lonesome Bedroom Blues" and "I Want Somebody"...

, Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, and Henry Gray

Henry Gray (musician)

Henry Gray is an African-American blues piano player and singer. He has been playing for more than seven decades, and has played with a multitude of artists including Robert Lockwood, Jr., Billy Boy Arnold, Morris Pejoe, the Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf among many others...

. 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

Dow Chemical Company

The Dow Chemical Company is a multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. As of 2007, it is the second largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization .Dow...

 plant.

Garner won the International Blues Challenge

International Blues Challenge

The International Blues Challenge is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation.The 2010 winner of the top prize was Matt Andersen.The 2011 winners of the top prize were ....

 in 1988, and his first two albums, Double Dues and Too Blues, were released by the British JSP

JSP Records

JSP Records is a British record label, founded in 1978 by John Stedman , releasing recordings by blues musicians such as Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louisiana Red and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. The label is based in London, England.JSP now predominantly releases remastered CDs...

 label. The latter album's title was an 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's 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.

Discography

All eight of Garner's CDs have been released by labels in Europe or Britain:

• Too Blues (1994) - JSP
  JSP Records
  JSP Records is a British record label, founded in 1978 by John Stedman , releasing recordings by blues musicians such as Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louisiana Red and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. The label is based in London, England.JSP now predominantly releases remastered CDs...
  
  
• Double Dues (1995) - JSP
• You Need to Live a Little (1996) - Polygram
• Standing Room Only (1998) - Ruf
  Ruf Records
  The motto of the blues label is "Where Blues Crosses Over". The company's office is located in Lindewerra, Germany. As of 2008 Ruf has produced 120 releases, sold over 1 million albums, received two Grammy nominations and ten Blues Music Award nominations....
  
  
• Baton Rouge (1999) - Evidence
• Once Upon the Blues (2000) - Ruf
• Embarrassment to the Blues? (2002) - live album - Ruf
• Here Today Gone Tomorrow (2008) - Dixiefrog
• Larry Garner, Norman Beaker and Friends - Live at the Tivoli (2010) (recorded at The Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne on 8 October 2009)