Little Joe McLerran

Little Joe McLerran
Little Joe performing in Palmira, Colombia
Background information
Birth name Joseph R. McLerran
Born (1983-07-16) July 16, 1983
Boulder, Colorado, United States
Occupation(s) Traveling musician, recording artist
Instruments Guitar and vocals
Years active 1993–present
Labels Root Blues Reborn
Associated acts Robbie Mack, Johnny Long, Washboard Chaz Leary, Dexter Payne, David Berntson, Ron McRorey, Andre Bohren, Jimmy Markham, Chuck Blackwell, Ray Bonneville, Eden Brent, Lionel Young
Website Official website

Joseph R. McLerran, better known as Little Joe McLerran, (born July 16, 1983) is an American blues singer and guitarist living in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, United States, a small community located near Tulsa. In 2009, representing the Blues Society of Tulsa, Little Joe won the International Blues Challenge Solo/Duo competition hosted by the Blues Foundation and held each year in Memphis. In 2010 Little Joe teamed up with Jazz at Lincoln Center and joined the Rhythm Road taking a quartet featuring David Bernston on harmonica, Robbie Mack on bass and drummer Ron McRorey on a tour of the Middle East visiting Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman just weeks before the onset of the Arab Spring later that same year.[1][2]

History

Little Joe McLerran was born in Boulder, Colorado. Joe started playing the guitar and studying the Piedmont Blues style the age of 8 and by the age of 10 he was busking on Boulder's fabled Pearl Street Mall with his younger brother Jesse on drums. They played Beatles songs, Bob Marley tunes and blues songs from the masters; Big Bill Broonzy, Skip James, Tampa Red, Mississippi John Hurt and a whole lot of others.[3] The McLerran family moved to Tulsa in 1998 where Joe and Jesse continued to play those old blues songs, Joey playing the guitar and Jesse scratching a washboard now. Not old enough to play the bars they continued to busk the streets of Tulsa and soon caught the attention of the Blues Society of Tulsa. This led to a few restaurant and private party gigs. Tulsa legend Jimmy “Junior” Markham invited them to play the Oklahoma Blues Festival and gave them a lot of encouragement.

Enlisting their father, aka Robbie Mack, on bass they began working on a CD. For several months they worked on the CD inviting their friend Dexter Payne, a multi-instrumentalist from Boulder, to join them. During the final stages of mixing the CD Jesse died in an accident. As a memorial and tribute to Jesse, the “Pearly Gates” CD was released in 2004 as Son Piedmont and the Blues Krewe on the Roots Blues Reborn label.

In 2009, Little Joe took first place at the International Blues Challenge held each year in Memphis, Tennessee by the Blues Foundation. Little Joe was representing the Blues Society of Tulsa.[4] With this sudden notoriety Little Joe took his bassist father, Robbie Mack, on a festival tour to Europe where they played the Rootsway Roots'n'Blues Festival in Parma, Italy.

In 2010 Little Joe was selected by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the US State Department to take part in the Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad, a U.S. State Department cultural exchange program to help put a more friendly face on the United States. The project began in the 1960s, during the cold war, as the Jazz ambassadors featuring jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, among others. In early 2010, Little Joe traveled to the Persian Gulf region of the Middle East with his band, the Little Joe McLerran Quartet.[5] The band visited Bahrain then crossed the 100 mile causeway to Saudi Arabia where they made history performing the first public concert ever held there in that nation's history.[6][1] Public concerts, school workshops and concerts and private diplomatic parties at the embassies and consulates across the nation. The band then traveled to Kuwait and finished the 5-week tour in Muscat, Oman with a concert at the Crown Plaza Hotel. The tour ended just weeks before the onset of the Arab Spring as it began that year in Tunisia and Bahrain.[7]

Little Joe continues to travel for the State Department as a musical ambassador presenting educational and cultural exchange missions to the masses. On behalf of the Department of State he took his trio to the South American embassies in the countries of Paraguay in 2011[8] and Colombia in 2012.[9] He took the band to the Dominican Republic in 2014.[10]

Aside from State Department missions Little Joe travels internationally as in 2015 when he traveled to São Paulo, Brazil with bandmate David Berntson to participate in the Brazilian International Harmonica Festival known in Brazilian Portuguese as Encontro Internacional de Harmonica.[11]

In 2013 Little Joe McLerran was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame[12] and presented with the Legacy Tribute Award.[13]

Little Joe continues to perform at festivals, concerts and clubs across the country and around the world as a solo act and with his band.[14]

Discography

  • 2004 - Son Piedmont and the Blues Krewe - RBR Records
  • 2006 - The Hard Way - Hit Records
  • 2007 - Live at Last Volume 1 - RBR Records
  • 2009 - Believe I'll Make a Change - RBR Records[15]
  • 2012 - Facebook Blues - RBR Records[16]

Personal life

Little Joe is married to Casey Geiser McLerran. They have two sons; Julian and John Lee.

References

  1. 1 2 Jennifer Chancellor. "Blues travelers". Tulsaworld.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  2. ↑ Law, Bill (15 February 2011). "Bahrain protests prompt global concerns". Bbc.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Musician Little Joe McLerran sings the blues". Tulsapeople.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "Bernesto's Beat". Davidberntson.blogspot.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  6. ↑ Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna da (17 June 2010). "America's Musical Ambassadors". Wsj.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  7. ↑ Jennifer Chancellor. "Tulsa musician teaches the blues". Tulsaworld.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  8. ↑ "Con Alma de Blues: Little Joe McLerran - BLUES TRIO -Tour Paraguay 2011 DVDRIP". Polloking.blogspot.com. 20 April 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "Little Joe McLerran - Cali Blues Festival 2012 - Centro Cultural Colombo Americano Cali - Palmira - Buga". Colomboamericano.edu.xo. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "Jazz en Dominicana". Jazzendominicana.blogspot.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  11. ↑ Encontro Internacional de Harmonica (13 August 2015). "Encontro Internacional de Harmonica David Berntson e Little Joe McLerran Morning Blues". YouTube. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  12. ↑ "Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame". Okjazz.org. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  13. ↑ "Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame". Okjazz.org. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  14. ↑ eMinor. "Little Joe McLerran Shows - ReverbNation". ReverbNation. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  15. ↑ "Little Joe McLerran releases new 2009 CD – Believe I'll Make a Change". Damprock.wordpress.com. 31 October 2009. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  16. ↑ "Blues Blast Magazine - www.TheBluesBlast.com - Blues CD Review". Thebluesblast.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
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