Kenny NEAL

⬇️ NEAL Family ⬇️

(Raful, Kenny, Lil' Ray)
DISCOGRAPHY 1988-2016 (25CD)

 BIOGRAPHIES 
RAFUL

Raful Neal (June 6, 1936 – September 1, 2004) was a Louisiana blues singer, harmonicist and songwriter from the United States.

Neal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and reared by his aunt and uncle on a tenant farm in Chamberlin, West Baton Rouge Parish. He began playing the harmonica at age 14. He played with Buddy Guy in a band called the Clouds. His first record, "Sunny Side of Love" (1958) on Peacock Records, was not successful.

Neal's first album, called Louisiana Legend, was initially issued by King Snake Records and later by Alligator Records in 1990. His 1991 album I Been Mistreated was released on Ichiban Records. Neal toured globally. In 1997 his harmonica playing was featured on the album Live: Swampland Jam by Tab Benoit. Neal's album Old Friends was issued in 1998.

Neal died of cancer in Baton Rouge in September 2004. Nine of his ten children are also blues musicians, and several performed with him on his later releases on the Alligator label.

KENNY

Neal preserves the blues sound of his native south Louisiana, as befits someone who learned from Slim Harpo, Buddy Guy and his father, the harmonica player, Raful Neal.

In 1987, Neal cut his debut album for the Florida record producer, Bob Greenlee — an updated swamp feast initially marketed on King Snake Records as Bio on the Bayou. Alligator Records picked it up the following year, retitled it Big News from Baton Rouge!!

In 1991 he also proved to be a talented actor in the Broadway production of the folk musical Mule Bone (by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston), singing numbers written by Taj Mahal.

Neal has played with blues stars including Lucky Peterson and Lazy Lester, and was at one time a member of The Downchild Blues Band, during a period of relocation to Toronto.

In September 2006 Neal announced he was taking a year's break from recording and performing, due to an undisclosed illness.

He returned to the public eye at the Monterey Blues Festival in June 2007. His illness was also disclosed as Hepatitis C. Lately he is touring with Efes Pilsen Blues Festival.

LIL' RAY

Born March 16, 1960, Lil Ray (Raful Neal III)  the third eldest of ten siblings, has long been regarded as one of the finest blues guitarists in the business.  Raised in Ervinville, Louisiana, he started playing at Spooner's, a country store/club owned by his grandfather when he was about 12 years old.  His father played at that store with his band and during the break he would let Ray and his brothers get up to play.

Ray learned much with the likes of Buddy Guy and Harpo Slim hanging around but it was two of his school teachers that gave him the incentive to want to hone his craft as a guitar player.  In the days leading up to summer break he would take his guitar to school and persuade Mr. Ronald Young and Mr. Edward Yearby to play.  "Both were hell of a guitar players and I learned from just listening..you really didn't want to play, you just wanted to listen", Lil Ray recalls.

In 1976 the Neal family moved to Baton Rouge and within a few years Ray was playing regularly with his father.  In 1980 his brother Kenny asked him and his brothers to join him in Toronto, Canada.  Ray continued to play with Kenny in Canada until his visa ran out and he went back to Baton Rouge...but not for long.

Little Milton offered Ray a job with his band and it was back on the road.  He'll be the first to admit that life on the road was hard but the valuable lessons he learned are still with him today.  Ray is grateful that he had the opportunity to play with some of the greatest musicians that have ever took the stage.

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