ronnie earl and the broadcasters

Ronnie Earl - The Big Train

When asked if he considers himself prolific, blues guitarist Ronnie Earl says with a laugh, “I don’t know if I would call myself prolific at anything.” With a career spanning close to 40 years (25 of those with his band, the Broadcasters) Earl isn’t one to oversell himself. On his latest album, the stellar Just for Today, Earl’s brand of blues is exquisitely captured in its natural environment: the stage. You see, the blues is a living, breathing thing and according to Earl, it’s all about bringing the audience—and their energy—into the performance. “When you bring it down, then you have the ability to bring the audience in. If it’s always sonic overload then the audience doesn’t have a chance to breathe and rest,” he says. “The universe doesn’t have a chance to breath and rest either.” The last few years have become a return to form for the Broadcasters. At one time, the touring schedule was heavy and it began to take a tool on Earl’s health. “I’d gotten something called clinical depression and also bipolar disorder. It stopped me dead in my tracks and I didn’t exactly know what to do. I was out of the loop for maybe 10 years. There can be a lot of stigma attached to mental health issues, but I came through it due to the love of my wife and God and the 12 steps,” says Earl. Now that he’s on the other side of his struggles, he keeps a relatively busy touring schedule, but doesn’t plan on returning to the pace of 200-plus gigs a year that broke him in the early ’90s.