(Blues-Rock) Benny Valerio Band - Texas Thunder - 1993, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Benny Valerio was fourteen years old when he bought his first Fender Stratocaster with money from a paper route on the near north side of Houston in 1961. His early listening focused on B. B. King, Jimmy Reed, and Chuck Berry, with the early Cobra sides of Otis Rush another major influence. When the Beatles played the Sam Houston Coliseum, Benny gave his ticket to his brother and headed to a black club on Old Spanish Trail to hear Jimmy Reed instead. A self-taught musician, he spent his underage years sneaking into clubs and vying for gigs in southeast Texas and Louisiana--drummer Uncle John "Red" Turner recently called himself, Benny, Johnny Winter, and the late Joey Long "the last of the original Texas/Louisiana border bandits." Benny's first steady gig was playing guitar with Cajun musician Link Davis of "Big Mamou" fame. He also began playing sessions for producer Huey Meaux at an early age, recording with Barbara Lynn and Tommy McLain. Albert Collins, Clarence Holliman, and a young Billy Preston were other Houstonians Benny met and played with at this stage.
During his late teens Benny and his brother Danny often played at the Act III Club in south Houston, a meeting place for local musicians. The underage Valerio brothers ended up taking over its after-hours gig from brothers Johnny and Edgar Winter. Some of the other musicians Benny had the chance to play with there were Dennis "Crash" Collins of Houston radio fame, the late Isaac Payton Sweat, and Tony Braunagel, who went on to play drums for Bonnie Raitt. At these jams his initial blues and rock 'n' roll roots were augmented by the R&B influences of the time: Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, Volt-Stax Artist (which include Albert King), and the Temptations, among others. Benny went on to back local artists like C.L. Weldon, Jesse Lankford, Joey Long, B. J. Thomas and Roy Head, and played the Cellar and other Houston clubs with bands like Houston Natural Gas during this early phase of his career.
1967 led Benny to answer Uncle Sam's draft notice with a tour of duty in the U. S. Marine Corps. He wound up at Khe Sanh during the assault by 50,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and is still thankful to have made it through that and back to Houston in one piece--many of the kids he fought beside did not.
During the Seventies, Benny's career revolved around a pair of legendary clubs: Liberty Hall in Houston and Antones in Austin. The Austin connection came about when Uncle John Turner recruited Benny to join him and Tommy Shannon in their post Johnny Winter band Rattlesnake, replacing a not-yet-fullgrown Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. Benny was able to sit in with Otis Rush and other legends he'd missed in Houston, as well as adding his own playing to Austin's modern blues explosion when performing at the Waterloo Social Club every week.
In his home base of Houston, he was lucky enough to play with the likes of Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, John Mayall, Albert Collins and others at Liberty Hall. Benny and Mance Lipscomb were so close that Mance freely did an acoustic blues set for Benny's wedding reception. A chance sit-in on slide guitar impressed Freddie King enough to earn Benny a spot in Freddie's touring band for a year. The musical foundation he had accumulated by the age of 30 led to a tenure as producer Huay Meaux's ace session guitarist at Sugar Hill Studios in the late Seventies.
Through the Eighties and into the Nineties, Benny has led his own groups, playing blues and classic rock relentlessly throughout the Houston area. He even found a way to symbolically pay back the many legends he'd sat in with over the years by successfully pioneering the concept of the regular blues jam in Houston in the late 70's, a move which helped lead to the Bayou City's thriving blues scene today. His first CD on Wolftrax Records, Texas Thunder, was released in 1993.
Using all of his many R&B, soul and rock influences, Benny Valerio has created a vision of the blues which is solely his own, one that grows out of the experience of a lifetime Surrounded by the Blues. Recorded with his band Texas Thunder at Austin's famed Arlyn and Pedernales studios, his new CD of original tunes showcases his ability to write in a wide array of blues idioms, and a stellar cast of Austin supporting musicians--Derek O'Brien, Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff, and Riley Osbourn--gives the tunes the settings they deserve. From the jazzy organ shuffle "Lik It 'n' Stik It" to the Chicago slide of "Rollin' Up 290," from the Duke/Peacock echoes of "Surrounded by the Blues" to the modern Texas shuffle "l Got What You Need," Benny Valerio delivers the blazing guitar and soulful vocals of an authentic Texas master.

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