Born on December 13, 1958, the son of famed Chicago blues harmonica master Carey Bell, Lurrie Bell was raised in a Chicago household naturally steeped in the blues. “Because of my dad there was all kinds of music, growing up in that house,” Bell reminisces.  All manner of blues greats would regularly drop by to rehearse: guitarists including Eddie Taylor, Eddie C. Campbell, Jimmy Dawkins, and Eddy Clearwater (Bell’s cousin); harmonica legends like Big Walter Horton; and equally storied keyboardists including Sunnyland Slim and Muddy Waters sideman Lovie Lee, whom Bell came to regard as his “spiritual grandfather.”  So it was that at an emphatically young age, Bell taught himself guitar and began playing along during rehearsals. At eight years old, Bell left Chicago to live in Mississippi and Alabama with his grandparents. During this time he played mostly in the church, immersing himself in the passionate expressiveness of the gospel tradition.  Soon he was back in Chicago and deep into the blues again.

It was Lovie Lee, Bell recalls with a grin, who “sneaked me into” a South Side nightclub when the young prodigy was fourteen, to make his stage debut. “I don’t remember the name of the song,” says Bell, “but it was a blues shuffle.  I got some good applause for it; it really inspired me to keep going.”

At 15, he formed his first band while attending Crane High School on the city’s West Side.  In 1977 at the age of 17, Bell was a founding member of The Sons of Blues with fellow Chicago blues scions Freddie Dixon (son of Willie) and Billy Branch (son of Ben), and performed that year at the Berlin Jazz Festival presented as the New Generation of Chicago Blues. Soon afterwards the group cut three standout tracks for Alligator Records’ Grammy-nominated series Living Chicago Blues.  Lurrie had already made his first appearances in the recording studio earlier that year with his father on Carey’s Delmark album Heartaches and Pains, and on Eddie C. Campbell's Rooster Blues album King of the Jungle.   Not only was Bell recognized as an exceptionally talented guitarist and musician, his knowledge of different blues styles, his soulfulness and his musical maturity brought write-ups in publications such as Rolling Stone and The New York Times. 

At 20, Bell joined the band of Chicago’s acknowledged Queen of the Blues: Koko Taylor   and stayed for several years, honing his chops and learning the ropes of being a traveling musician.  Bell teamed up again with his father, as a member of Carey Bell’s Blues Harp Band.  “It was quite an experience,” Bell says fondly. “He always told me I sounded as good as his guitarist, Eddie Taylor, and it made me feel good to hear those comparisons.”

Battling and defeating a series of personal demons kept him out of the studio and off the road for a long spell in the late 1980’s, but Bell finally persevered and re-surfaced in the mid-1990’s with a succession of four highly acclaimed records for Chicago’s Delmark label.  In 2002 saw the release of the CD Cuttin’ Heads and in 2004 Alligator Records released Second Nature an acoustic duet record with Carey Bell that was nominated for Acoustic Record of the Year by the Blues Foundation in Memphis.

Sadly, Lurrie lost his long-time friend, partner, and mother of his daughter Aria, Susan Greenberg, to cancer on January 20, 2007. Susan was an accomplished and respected artist and photographer who specialized in the blues. She impacted Lurrie's life perhaps more than any other. He credits her with putting him on the right path in life and considers her to be his soul mate who was brought to him by God to bring him to where he is supposed to be.

Lurrie's loss of Susan was soon followed by the death of his legendary father, Carey Bell, to heart failure on May 6, 2007. Carey was Lurrie's mentor and he gave him the gift of the blues. Sharing the stage with his father is among Lurrie's most cherished memories. Their last recorded project together, the live DVD/CD release on Delmark, Getting Up Live ended up to be their most special.

Bell responded by immersing himself even deeper into his music and with the generous financial support of the Greenberg family launched his own label imprint, Aria B.G. Records. The result was Let’s Talk About Love his most accomplished, deeply heartfelt album yet. Produced by longtime associate Matthew Skoller, the record vividly displays Bell’s unshakeable faith in the power of the blues.

Bell’s recorded output has been prodigious, even despite his lengthy absence from the scene: he has contributed to well over 50 albums, including numerous solo efforts, duets with father Carey, and an extensive list of guest appearances. Since the onset of the new millennium, Bell has been steadily raising his profile; without question, Lurrie Bell is back and better than ever.   

Bell was voted Most Outstanding Guitar Player in the 2007 Living Blues magazine critics’ poll, and was nominated for a 2007 Blues Music Award for Best Guitarist by the Blues Foundation. As producer Skoller’s liner notes for Let’s Talk About Love observe, “Lurrie is now a blues master at a needed time when there are very few blues masters left.”

Skoller, who has worked and played with Lurrie Bell for over 25 years, notes, “Being a bluesman is very important to Lurrie; his spiritual connection to the blues is amazing.  He feels he’s part of a tribe, and he is proud of belonging to the blues legacy – it’s who he is.”

For Lurrie Bell, life right now is, as it has always been, all about the music.  “Being able to record, to get up onstage and perform, makes you want to get up in the morning and face the day,” he says with relish.  “Every day.”