One of the great characters and players of the Chicago music scene, Frank 'Son' Seals is remembered as an authentic custodian of early electric blues with an intense, raspy voice and gritty guitar tones.
Raised in a dusty, country juke joint in Osceola, Arkansas owned by his father, he lived in the back of the Dipsy-Doodle Club while, out front, they gambled over dice and card games, drank unlicensed liquor and listened to the musicians who travelled up from Memphis. Albert King lived locally and rehearsed there until the early hours of the morning and Robert Nighthawk was a regular; but young Frank also heard country music on the radio, gospel songs at church and big band artists like Count Basie and Duke Ellington on reels at the local picture house. At 16-years-old, he started playing in bars around the area before touring with Earl Hooker and in 1971 he made it to Chicago (the hotbed of blues music at the time) where he was discovered playing with Hound Dog Taylor and was signed by Alligator Records. His early albums 'The Son Seals Blues Band', 'Midnight Son' and 'Chicago Fire' were slick and funky affairs, which captured his wailing guitar sprawl and his band's strutting grooves. But it was his live shows at which he really unleashed his raw, intense, unbridled best.
He was championed by crime-fiction writer Andrew Vachss and had huge respect within the blues world, but he suffered setbacks with record company disputes and in 1997 was shot in the jaw by his wife after an argument. Two years later he was also forced to have a leg amputated because of diabetes, but he still managed to tour and record his acclaimed album 'Lettin' Go' in 2000, produced by Jimmy Vivino and featuring Al Kooper and Phish. He died in 2004 aged 62 after complications with diabetes.
