Arkansas-born blues guitarist Luther Allison came up in the Chicago scene in the late 1950s, encouraged by Muddy Waters. Allison didn't make his first album until the late '60s, but he quickly became a favorite on the festival circuit both in the U.S. and Europe. In the mid '70s, Allison recorded a couple of albums for Motown, but he moved to France in 1977 and didn't return to the U.S. until the early '90s. Over the next several years, Allison released a string of well-received albums and won a number of W.C. Handy awards. He died in 1997.