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Profile
Snooks Eaglin
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1999 KBA Award Winner
Achievement for Blues on the Internet
Presented by the Blues Foundation
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Snooks Eaglin is the Crescent City's secret weapon, a blind, eccentric virtuoso of the electric guitar who at 64, plays with more intensity, taste, mastery, and musical command than most anyone you can think of. Snooks was born Fird Eaglin Jr. January 21, 1936, in New Orleans. At 19 months he lost his sight following an operation for a brain tumor that required a two-and-a-half year stay in the hospital. Eaglin's father, a harmonica player, gave him a guitar at the age of five, and young Snooks taught himself to play by replicating songs off the radio and phonograph. His guitar playing developed rapidly and he was singing and playing in area Baptist churches by the time he was ten. Four years later he dropped out of the school for the blind to become a full-time musician, often playing on the streets as well as the clubs of New Orleans. Eaglin's first regular gig was with the Flamingoes in 1952, a seven-piece horn combo started by 13-year-old Allen Toussaint on piano. It was also Toussaint's first band. As much as his blindness may have made his life difficult in other ways, the younger Eaglin used it to his advantage to invent an original playing style that no one yet has deciphered. With a voice that is an extraordinary blend of hoarseness and velvet subtlety, roughness and wistfulness; and a dazzling guitar technique marked by jagged, staccato leads, fast intricate swingy runs and rhythmic chord clusters, Eaglin's solo playing almost sounds like a complete orchestra. In fact, there are few guitarists in his class. "He's one of the most naturally talented people I've ever met," says keyboardist/producer Ron Levy. "He can play any song just off the top of his head. If he can think about it and hear it in his head, he can play it perfectly," Levy enthuses. A one-of-a-kind performer, they broke the mold when Snooks was born.
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