Larry Hill Taylor grows up during the 1960s in the historic Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s rough and soulful West Side, with almost-famous parents: singer Vera Taylor, his mother; and guitarist Eddie Taylor, his stepfather. He survives family abuse and conflict, gangs, prison, drugs, and the streets. He spends 30 years on stage, drumming and singing and learning the blues from his musical elders as they change people’s hard times to good times.
What happens when Larry starts to lead his own band? Read Stepson of the Blues: A Chicago Song of Survival, his autobiography from Peaceful Patriot Press, co-authored by his former manager Bonni McKeown.
Chapters in Stepson of the Blues:
1. ANCESTORS: Music is the blessing Larry Hill was born with in 1955, but a cloud of racism and family abuse migrated up the river from Mississippi to Chicago.
2. WATERMELON IN THE PARK: Eddie Taylor, one of the most underrated blues guitar players in Chicago courts Larry’s mother in Douglas Park.
3. THEY ARE IN THIS HOUSE: Famous bluesmen visit the apartment at 1131 S. Mozart Street. Larry’s mother cooks plate fulls of greens for Howlin’ Wolf.
4. THE CURSE: Caught between his stepfather Eddie Taylor and absent birth father, abused by teenage sitters, Larry joins the Conservative Vice Lord gang. Great Uncle Lawyer doesn’t get to finish the job of driving away the bad spirits.
5. LAWNDALE: Music and Vice Lords: Leaders keep getting assassinated and the West Side burns in a riot, but Larry gets help from gang buddies and older bluesmen.
6. DRUMS vs. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Larry’s birth father shows up and gives him a drumset, which his stepfather throws in the alley. Larry’s first girlfriend is tragically murdered. Through it all, he keeps on learning to play drums.
7. YOUNG PANTHER: Larry shadows Black Panther organizer Fred Hampton, the next leader to be assassinated in 1969. Fred tells of the unholy alliance between racism and the greedy capitalists who are trying to pick everyone’s pockets.
8. SOUL IN THE LAGOON: An angel fishes Larry out of the Douglas Park lagoon as he flees his gang rivals. Larry escapes family strife by watching Howlin’ Wolf through a hold in the roof over Big Duke’s Blue Flame club.
9. THE MUSLIM TIER: Larry, barely 17, is charged with a terrible family crime, a worse accusation than the gang fighting he really did do. Luckily the Cook County jail warden likes music, and inmates who are members of the Nation of Islam challenge Larry to improve himself.
10. PENITENTIARY BLUES: Committed to Menard prison on a vague law that was later nullified, Larry survives five years and wins release with the help of a Muslim doctor, an “old penitentiary coon”, a counselor-girlfriend, and an imprisoned lawyer. While inside, he helps lead prison reform efforts and organizes a worship group and a band.
11. PLAYING WITH THE MASTERS. Larry learns the music business from his stepfather’s generation, and tours Germany with other young bluesmen. What happened to this current generation of African American blues artists? Read on.
12. WEST SIDE IS THE BEST SIDE: Great musicians came from Larry’s hood—in jazz days with Benny Goodman, then the 1950s-60s with Otis Rush and Magic Sam and soul singers like Tyrone Davis. Hotbeds like Nate’s Green Door and the Delta Fish Market kept the music fired up into the 1990s. Larry plays in a tight trio with Willie Kent and Johnny B Moore, the WestSouth Band.
13. OFFERS AND REFUSALS: Larry sees his stepdad and other blues elders keep losing out on both royalties and promotion. Sincere white fans are giving way to exploiters. Seems like the only answer is to throw in with Mobsters. But when they offer, he refuses.
14. BLUES IN MY LIFE: Larry’s first marriage produces offspring and blues songs; day jobs are adventures that lead nowhere. Despite his skill and experience, success in music eludes Larry and he loses direction. Drugs overwhelm the community and creep into his life. When his stepfather dies, he throws his own drums into the alley.
15. UNKNOWN SINGER: Spurred by Wolf Records studio sessions, Larry starts playing again. But after he asks for his royalties, he loses publicity.
16. A BLUES AND SOUL BAND: Larry forms his own band in 2004 to try to make a living sharing the blues and soul sounds of his ancestors and neighborhood. It’s an art to pick the right musicians, find gigs, and put your desired sound on a CD.
17. BLUES MAN Vs HELLHOUNDS: As soon as he gets gigs for his band and starts driving a car, Larry begins to suffer government surveillance. His car is stolen twice in trumped-up arrests. He gets flak from competitors who perceive the blues world is too small for another Chicago band, and even more flak for protesting the lack of recognition for upcoming black blues artists. He’s shut out of the Chicago blues clubs. Economic pressures as well as the spying add to his drug problems.
18. THE UN-HANDY TRUTH: After his band of Chicago professionals lose a local 2006 “Blues Challenge” to a local rock band in Marietta Ohio, Larry and his manager Bonni uncover the old-boy, racist structure behind the W.C. Handy Blues Music Awards and Blues Challenge contests. Un-Handy truths: leaders in the blues music business ignore the black audience and fail to promote Larry’s blues generation. See a video of Marietta. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMl8PQ5pCwo You be the judge!
19. RECOVERY: After over 20 tries, Larry settles into a drug treatment program in 2007. He begins to see the true story of his life, his right and wrong choices, the good and bad times, the elders who cheered him on.
20. WHY THE SPIES?: A Homeland Security agent shows up at Larry's drug clinic. Is America free enough these days for a bluesman to practice his religion and have a music career?
DOCUMENTS AND LETTERS include:
--W.Va. NAACP 2007 Blues Resolution
--“Ramadan in the Ghetto,” a 2004 essay from the authors explaining the Islamic holiday.
--“Open Letter to Some in the Blues Business
--“Racial Realizations,” Larry’s thoughts on racism, religion, economic and social justice, and how we the people can get along together better.