Luther Alison

Madison was Luther’s home for music and enjoying life. The Blues community lost Luther Allison in 1997. On August 14, 2004, MBS helped sponsor the Luther Allison Madison Memorial Dedication. The memorial is composed of 5 park benches and a plaque in Brittingham Park, one of Luther’s favorite fishing spots. Located in the S. Park Street corner of the park, the Memorial was erected to honor Luther & his connection to the Madison area community and music scene. A very special guest at the dedication was Bernard Allison, Luther’s son.

Luther’s Memorial would not have been possible without the initial 1998 efforts of a dedicated group of family and friends, the Luther Allison Madison Memorial Project Committee including Vera Crowell, David Day, Tom Earley, Laura Gallagher, Pat Gallagher, Dave Leucinger, Andy Linderman, Mark Munz, Marc Pesselman, Chuck Prindeville, John Roussos, Tom Sobel, Steve Sperling and Rocky Brown. We are forever grateful for their initiation of this project.
Luther always gave his all, both on and off stage. The Madison Blues Society is pleased that we could help bring about the completion of this Memorial, to honor the man and his music.

About Luther Alison

“Leave Your Ego. Play the Music. Love the People.”

– Luther Allison

Luther Sylvester Allison^[1] (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997)^[2][3] was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas,^[4] although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was Mayflower, Arkansas.^[1][5] Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he toured in a family gospel group called The Southern Travellers.^[1] He moved with his family to Chicago in 1951^[6] and attended Farragut High School^[1] where he was classmates with Muddy Waters‘ son.^[4] He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he dropped out of school^[1] and began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. Allison played with the bands of Howlin’ Wolf and Freddie King, taking over King’s band when King toured nationally.^[4][1] He worked with Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam and Otis Rush,^[1][4] and also backed James Cotton. Chicago Reader has called him “the Jimi Hendrix of blues guitar”.^[7] Source: Wikipedia