Earl's albums have been influenced by spiritual themes ever since. The Broadcasters released Language of the Soul in 1994 and The Colour of Love in 1997 (which featured a single guest vocal appearance from Gregg Allman), and concluded in 2000 with Healing Time. Earl's instrumental acumen and versatility resulted in a host of celebrated recordings, including one from his Broadcasters' quartet, 1993's Still River. His versatility made him one of the few blues guitarists capable of leading an almost entirely instrumental outfit, and his backing band the Broadcasters became one of the more respected working units in contemporary blues over the course of the '90s. In a long career that has seen him share the stage with a roll-call of blues legends, such as Muddy, Buddy, Junior Wells, Clapton, Santana and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ronnie Earl has impressed a lot of people, but perhaps BB King put it best when he called Ronnie “One of the most serious Blues guitarists you can find today”.One of the finest blues guitarists to emerge during the '80s, the award-winning Ronnie Earl often straddled the line between blues and jazz, throwing in touches of soul and rock as well. Stress caused Ronnie to scale back his work for a while around 2000 too, but his 2003 album ‘I Feel Like Going On’, has been followed up by regular releases on the Canadian Stony Plain label. Ronnie had problems with alcohol for a while, but came back strong and also passed on his experience by working as an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and many National Guitar summer schools, as well as making an instructional DVD. More than a dozen studio albums later, on top of live releases and including a more jazz-based instrumental album, Ronnie and his band continue to rip out those classic Blues licks. They released a series of well-received albums and, after many changes of personnel, The Broadcasters remains as the vehicle for Ronnie’s Blues.
When Ronnie went solo in 1988, he formed The Broadcasters (named after Leo Fender‘s first guitar) with Darrell Nulisch on vocals and harp player Jerry Portnoy.
Ronnie’s Black Top collection ‘Test of Time’ is unavailable, but this live album is what Ronnie is all about, and The Broadcasters are in great form.
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