LARRY GRIFFITH "HARD AS IT GETS"
Larry was brought up in the inner city of Cincinnati, Ohio by a single
parent along with nine other siblings. The dilapidated three tiered
tenement literally shook with the radio and vinyl record sounds of
everything from blues, gospel, and soul, to jazz. It was in this
fertile, eclectic musical environment that 9 year old Larry first picked
up a pen and copied the lyrics of Willie Dixon, Bob Dylan, Laura Nero,
Billy Strayhorn and countless others. Larry marveled at these wonderful
storytellers and it eventually led him to write his own stories.
Two brothers returning from the military armed with funds from the GI
Bill allowed the Griffith family to upgrade to the Walnut Hills section
of Cincinnati, which housed the legendary King Records. Seeing great
artists in the neighborhood like Freddie King, Bill Doggett, Hank
Ballard, Ivory Joe Hunter and even the Godfather of Soul himself James
Brown was an ordinary occurrence. As a matter of fact it was Wesley
Hargrove of Hank Ballard’s Midnighters who first took 16 year old Larry
into Federal Records recording studio to drum on several demos. This
led to stints as a session drummer, weekend touring and a bird’s eyes
view of the not so pretty side of the business all while still in his
teens.
Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys had a profound effect on Larry because of
the way Jimi married sonic sounds with futuristic, introspective lyrics.
It was also around this time that he fell in lifelong love with the
lyrical phasing of John Coltrane.
Relocating to Atlanta, Georgia in the 1990s, Larry discovered then
quickly became immersed in the thriving Atlanta blues scene. It was
here he had finally found a musical genre wide enough to accommodate his
eclectic tastes. Still, it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that “the
dream” turned everything on its ear.
While staying at a backwoods motel in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Larry who
previously had no designs on or inclinations toward guitar experienced
the same dream three nights in a row. In “the dream”, he was onstage
ripping it up on guitar like a man possessed, working the deep delta
juke joint crowd into a sweet, sweaty frenzy. Fully awakened, Larry
came back to Atlanta and told his friend and bandmate, Chicago Joe Jones
of his strange dream. It was Joe who then gave Larry his first guitar,
a no-name something or other that he had found at a garage sale for a
$1. From these humble beginnings and equipped with the visual of the
Mississippi delta dream, Larry strapped on, plugged in, turned up and
began chipping away.
LARRY GRIFFITH
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