Rest In Peace Guitar Lightnin’ Lee
Lightnin’ Lee has left this world and we are bereft. The old New Orleans guitar legend is gone after thousands of gigs in Louisiana and beyond. How many nights did we spend at Melvin’s, Saturn Bar, Checkpoint Charlies, Mermaid Lounge, The Circle Bar, Vaughan’s Lounge and others grinding with strangers with Lee’s hypnotic boogie as the soundtrack?
Countless.
A Closer Walk NOLA had this to say:
We’re celebrating the life of Guitar Lightnin’ Lee, who passed away a few days ago. Born Leroy Williams and raised in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Lightnin’ rambled far and wide–tracking down his idol Jimmy Reed in Chicago, becoming a prize fighter, surviving a shipwreck with fellow guitarist Rockie Charles–before becoming an elder statesman of the blues in his hometown.
A one-of-a-kind character, Lightnin’ lit up barrooms across New Orleans in his signature Western-style shirts and hats, slinging his guitar, Josephine. He was a fixture at clubs that stayed under the radar of the city’s music establishment, from Mickey Bee’s in the Lower 9 to Guitar Joe’s House of Blues (not *that* House of Blues) in Central City.
It was at Guitar Joe’s that Lightnin’ connected with drummer Paul Artigues, then known for his playing in the punk scene. Artigues assembled the Thunder Band to back Lightnin’ over the last decades of his life.
In 2009, ANTIGRAVITY magazine asked Artigues and Lightnin’ about the astonishing frequency with which people meeting on the dance floor at their shows wound up leaving together. As Artigues told Lightnin, “It’s beautiful; you’re like cupid! You have a giant guitar that shoots little arrows with hearts on it.”
Thank you for the love, Lightnin!