Music
Boogie Woogie Red
1925–1992 · blues and boogie-woogie pianist, singer
Detroit-raised boogie-woogie pianist who backed John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson as a teenager and later became a star of Ann Arbor's Blind Pig.
- Born
Rayville, Louisiana- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 66- Birth name
- Vernon Harrison
- Detroit years
- 1927–1992
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Vernon Harrison was brought to Detroit from Louisiana in 1927, when he was a toddler, and grew up amid the piano players of the city's Black neighborhoods. While still a teenager he was working alongside Sonny Boy Williamson I, Baby Boy Warren and John Lee Hooker, and over the years he also played with Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red and Memphis Slim. He recorded with Washboard Willie from the late 1950s into the early 1960s, and toured Europe with Baby Boy Warren in 1972 and with a blues package the following year. The 1970s brought a second career: he held down Monday nights at the Blind Pig, a new cafe and club in Ann Arbor, and its owners' label issued Live at the Blind Pig in 1974 and Red Hot in 1977. He remained a fixture of Michigan blues until his death in Detroit in 1992.
Highlights
- Played with Sonny Boy Williamson I, Baby Boy Warren and John Lee Hooker as a teenager
- Albums Live at the Blind Pig (1974) and Red Hot (1977)
- Monday-night regular at Ann Arbor's Blind Pig in the 1970s
- European tours in 1972 and 1973
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · mid-1970s
The Blind Pig
Ann Arbor cafe and blues club where he held Monday nights; his 1974 live album was recorded there.