A little bit of background on kid red
kid red is a New Orleans guitarist and blues singer with a whisky voice and wailing Texas blues guitar chops. His roots go back to the early Rolling Stones where he first discovered the blues as a youngster. As he grew older and learned where the Stones had found all that great music, he began to learn more about Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf and the many other American blues artists who had inspired his heroes.
His musical career started in the early seventies when he began playing guitar and quickly found himself in a series of garage bands doing songs from the Who, Santana, Free and a host of others.
By the mid seventies he had discovered bluegrass and country music and formed his first working band with some friends, playing acoustic and electric guitar and dobro. They did covers of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and a large repetoire of music by Austin artists who were part of the emerging outlaw country scene. The song list was heavy with Jerry Jeff, Willie and Waylon, Guy Clark and the like. That band, called Swampdust, played around New Orleans including Tipitinas and extensively at honky tonks north of the Lake Ponchartrain.
Swampdust broke up in 1981 and kid red, previously Larry Chiri, heard the calling of the blues, changed his name and began to do the music he had loved when he was young. As he made the rounds of New Orleans clubs he added the punk rock influence of the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Ramones and others to his sound, the beginning of a bold new hybrid of roots and rock music. However, after two years kid red moved to Houston where he promptly got married and his music career went on hiatus.
Ten years later, as the marriage ground to halt he returned to music with a vengence. By then he had been making the rounds of the Houston blues scene, developing a unique whisky and cigarettes vocal style that has been described as “Tom Waits with an overhead cam and glasspacks.” After playing the Houston scene, including such noted venues as Rudyards, Dan-Electro’s and the Blue Iguana, he returned to New Orleans. During this time the kid was slowly recording an eclectic combination of electric blues and various acoustic tracks that were released on a CD called Roots and Larry.
He has been a regular at a number of New Orleans clubs including Checkpoint Charlie, Vic’s Kangaroo Cafe, Silky O’Sullivan’s, Tricou House on Bourbon Street and Patouts, where he often appeared with blues legend Ironin’ Board Sam. In April of 2000 he made his debut at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with Ironin’ Board himself and the Hot Iron Revue to an enthusiastic response.
kid red’s music has slowly taken a turn toward the groove since his return to New Orleans and has of late emerged as a strongly caribbean influenced roots rock jam band. Material runs from blatantly reggae Dylan covers to Marley tunes that move towards an old school R&B tip. In between, there is no shortage of the straight ahead psycho-roots jams kid red developed in those post divorce days in Houston at Dan Electro’s and The Big Easy.
kid red is now living in Houston and traveling the gulf coast as much as possible. He recently appeared in the HBO series Treme.