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EXCELLO RECORDS CAREER PHASE (1950S/60S) In the mid-'50s, Lazy Lester rambled the margins of the , ''Lazy Lester,'' Slim Harpo ." When Guy did leave for Chicago, in 1957, Lester replaced him, on guitar, in a local band — even though Lester, at the time, did not own a guitar. Legend has it (and Lester has confirmed in interviews) that Lazy Lester's career took off when he happened to find a seat next to bluesman Lightnin' Slim on a Bus transporting Slim to an Excello recording session. When Slim got off, Lester followed. At the studio, the scheduled Harmonica player on the gig happened not to show. Slim and Lester spent the better part of the afternoon trying to hunt him down, unsuccesfully. So Lester volunteered that ''he'' could play a bit of Harmonica himself. Lester's work on that first Lightnin' Slim session led label boss Jay Miller to record Lester solo — and also to use Lester as a back-up multi-instrumentalist on Percussion , Guitar , Bass , as well as Harmonica on sessions headlined by virtually every other Excello artist, including, notably, Slim Harpo .
Miller dubbed Lester "Lazy" because of his laconic, laid-back style. Lester's unique vocal delivery — which has been called "marbles-in-the-mouth" — makes his singing style almost a "blues Tom Waits ." At least one critic has opined that Lester's vocals actually improved in the comeback phase of his career, as his voice aged. By any reckoning, Lester surely ranks among the most distinctive blues singers of his era. Perhaps even more than his vocal delivery, Lester may be best remembered for a core handful of ," " I Hear You Knockin' ," " Sugar-Coated-Love ," and " Bloodstains On The Wall ."
Lester says he himself wrote these songs — but almost all are officially credited to the pen of . COMEBACK CAREER PHASE (LATE 1980S TO PRESENT) In 1971, Fred Reif , a blues aficionado, set up a Lightnin' Slim gig at the venerable University Of Chicago Folk Festival ; Reif tracked down Lester, and — after a series of bus-travel mishaps — got Lester to accompany him on the one-off gig. Years passed. The late '80s found Reif and Lester both in Michigan , from where Reif orchestrated a comeback, touring and recording. By that time, Excello -style Swamp Blues was a fading but cherished Memory . Lester, the sub-genre's last man standing, was the only one who might launch its renaissance. With Reif prodding him on, playing both chauffer and Rub-board , Lester recorded and played around the country and abroad, backed by pick-up blues bands including, frequently, Loaded Dice . The gigs were surprisingly animated — no one gets a crowd dancing like Lazy Lester. These performances ranged from blues clubs to foreign and domestic blues festivals to star-studded sessions at Austin 's Antones club — to at least one large traditional white ballroom wedding. Once burned, though, Lester remained wary of the music industry: He was persistently frustrated by fans soliciting autographs on records he had never been paid for. So even as the 90's blues revival crescendoed, Lester refused to be tied down by a multi-album record deal. He now scrutinized one-off recording contracts, and (unsuccessfully) sought help recovering lost Excello -era royalties. Lester's recordings in this period are on some important blues labels: Alligator, Telarc, Antones, besides releases in Europe, where Lazy Lester albums have long stayed in print. On one record, Jimmie Vaughan paid an installment on the Fabulous Thunderbirds ' significant debt to Lester by contributing an album's worth of guitar licks. There were also re-releases of Excello material (for which Lester says he remains unpaid).
If disenchanted, Lester to the end retains not only his harmonica, guitar, and vocal talents (the songwriting that had been muse to , a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Blues Society . Indeed, in February 2003 Martin Scorsese included Lester in his all-star blues tribute concert at Radio City Music Hall , a record of which was released as the Film and Album '' Lightning In A Bottle ''. The group Photograph inside the Album depicts Lester grinning, dead-center among peers and musical progeny including B.B. King , Solomon Burke , Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown , Buddy Guy , Levon Helm , Chuck D , The Neville Brothers , Dr. John , John Fogerty , and Aerosmith . DISCOGRAPHY
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