Bernard Allison

Father knows best. Well, at least he does when pop is legendary bluesman Luther Allison. That kind of pedigree didn’t hurt when Bernard Allison began teaching himself to play the guitar by listening to his dad’s albums. Of course, the chip off the old block has a style all his own, perfected in Europe, where Allison the Younger was a blues ambassador to the Old Country for the better part of the ’90s. Now the Chicago-bred Bernard is back home, spreading his guitar gospel by infusing his daddy’s blues with a little funk and some rock thrown in for good measure. And if ticket prices for B.B. King and Jonny Lang have you cryin’, Allison’s two-night stand offers a little booze and a lot of blues with change to spare. Papa would have been proud.