Background
Garner grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his first inspiration being the guitar-playing preacher Reverend Utah Smith.
Garner grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his first inspiration being the guitar-playing preacher Reverend Utah Smith.
Garner completed military service in of Korea and returned to Baton Rouge, working part-time in music and full-time at a Dow Chemical plant.
His musical influences include Hogan, Clarence Edwards, Jimi Hendrix, and Henry Gray. The latter album"s title was in reply to a label executive who judged Garner"s original demo to be "too blues". Thomas" nightclub, Tabby"s Blues Box, provided Garner with a playing base in the 1980s and gave him the subject matter for the strongest song on Double Dues, "Number Free Rides".
You Need to Live a Little (1996) was followed by Standing Room Only (1998), Baton Rouge (1999) and 2000"s Once Upon the Blues.
Baton Rouge""s 1999 track, "Go To Baton Rouge," offered a tourist"s guide to Louisiana music spots. In 2008, Garner was treated for a serious illness that was the inspiration for his 2008 album, Here Today Gone Tomorrow.