Published by: Lamont Jack Pearley
In this episode, I speak with Louisiana Bluesman DK Harrell about the culture of Blues, the system that only allows one Black artist to be highlighted at a time, and the importance of reconnecting Blues People to Blues Music.
Born in Ruston, Louisiana on April 24, 1998. Dkieran was given the nickname, D.k. By his grandfather C.H. Jackson who swore that his grandson would be a musician. Dkieran grew up listening to his grandparent’s records that varied between old gospel, r&b, and blues. His mother claims that his first words were BB King’s The thrill is Gone. Dkieran first started performing at 5 years old imitating Ray Charles and James Brown, it was until the age of 12 he took up blues harmonica after seeing the film “Cadillac Records”. At the age of 13, he went from harmonica to guitar and idolized Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker but with many artists playing like them, he chose his roots to learn the ways of BB King. After years of watching various footage of King from 1968-2014, he has been claimed to play and sound like him. In 2019 he got a chance to show off his talent at the BB King symposium where he played one of BB’s custom Lucille’s. In 2020 he befriended many of BB’s former band members and great upcoming blues musicians like Jontavious Willis and Christone Ingram. Dkieran wants to bring back authentic blues, he feels music needs to continue to stay rich in soul and life.
