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Legendary blues guitarist Ronnie Earl was born Ronald Horvath, in Queens, New York, on March 10, 1953. He didn’t pick up his first guitar until twenty years later, beginning a musical journey that took him to the sides of some of the most respected and talented blues musicians in the world. Inspired by Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Big Walter Horton and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ronnie quickly developed his six string skills, playing with an intensity that hasn’t cooled in over thirty-five years of playing.
Earl, who has been hailed by musicians and critics alike as one of the premier blues guitarists of his genre, has played with such greats as Carlos Santana, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Otis Rush, Earl King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and The Allman Brothers.
"Ronnie is considered by critics, fans, and musicians alike to be one of the greatest guitarists to ever grace this planet, and his music truly transcends genres and touches the soul. Be it jazz, blues, or standards, his dynamic approach to playing is respectful of his influences and at the same time transporting jazz and blues into the next millennium." Tom Guerra
From 1979 to 1988, Earl played with a number of groups including Roomful of Blues before forming his own band in 1988 called The Broadcasters, named after the first Fender Telecaster guitar called the Broadcaster which was distributed in 1950. In 2008 the Broadcasters celebrated twenty years as a band. Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters have headlined at all the premiere festivals including the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival and the Long Beach Blues Festival. The current Broadcasters are: Dave Limina on the Hammond B3 and piano, Lorne Entress on drums and Jim Mouradian on bass. They have played together for eleven years.
Ronnie Earl is a two-time W.C. Handy Blues Award winner as Guitar Player of the Year. He has served as an Associate Professor of Guitar at Berklee College of Music, taught for five years at the National Guitar summer workshop in Connecticut. In 1995 Ronnie released Ronnie Earl: Blues Guitar with Soul, an instructional VHS tape that was then rereleased in DVD format in 2005. Earl’s discography includes acclaimed albums on Stony Plain, Black Top, Bullseye Blues, Verve, and Telarc. His 1996 Bullseye Blues release, Grateful Heart: Blues and Ballads, won Downbeat’s Blues Album of the Year, and in 2004 Earl’s Hey José won the Best Blues/R&B Song at the 3rd Annual Independent Music Awards.
"I feel the respect and affection for him that a father feels for his son. He is one of the most serious blues guitarists you can find today. He makes me proud." - B. B. King
"Perhaps the finest living blues guitarist on the planet." -The Boston Phoenix
“Ronnie Earl caresses the strings with utmost sensitivity one moment, alternately following it by a cluster of hard-edged riffs.” -Gary Tate, LivinBlues
“He has released some twenty albums…but Ronnie Earl can still take your breath away.” - Guitar Player Magazine
“When it’s time for spiritual rejuvenation, it’s time for a visit from Ronnie Earl, pastor of the church of tone.” -Eric C. Shoaf, Vintage Guitar
“Who in their right mind would wanna follow Ronnie Earl?!” -Robert Lockwood, Jr.
“A guitar player’s dream…Earl plays with the finesse of a Sugar Ray Leonard and the intensity of a Jake LaMotta.” -Guitar Player Magazine
“Few blues guitarists generate as much intensity and electricity as Earl does night after night…Ronnie plays each performance as though it were his last night on earth.” Guitar World Magazine
“Earl is the master of the slow squeeze, a string-bender whose soulful phrasing and heartache tone get under your skin.” -The New Paper , Providence
“Earl may be the most exciting blues guitarist on the scene. His simple, direct lines smolder like campfire ember.” - Scott Farina, Kansas City Star
“Guitarist Ronnie Earl is living history of Boston Blues.” - Brett Milano, Boston Globe
“Ronnie Earl plays some of the cleanest; torchiest blues guitar heard in many a moon.” -Eric Feeber, Virginian-Pilot
“Earl has been steadily staking out a solid claim as a certifiable guitar hero.” - Austin American-Statesman
“Earl has become the premier guitar slinger in the last decade…equally adept at the quietest, most delicate passages as well as the earth-shaking barn-burners.” - Jay Miller, Patriot Ledger
“… an album of rare joy and soul from a master who has reached another pinnacle in his playing.”
– Steve Morse, The Boston Globe
“Not interested in playing merely roadhouse blues, Earl has, since the 1990s, built a steady stream of diverse, ambitious recordings marked by consistency and growth. This one is no exception. Spread the Love is easily among Earl's most satisfying and groundbreaking recordings; it ranks with 1994's Language of the Soul, 1997's The Color of Love, and 2004's Now My Soul.”
– Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
“Ronnie Earl has to be on any short list of greatest blues guitarists working today. Spread the Love is one of the most enjoyable records to appear this year. In some ways, it’s to be expected from a man who has such an ability to combine all the blues (and some jazz and soul) which has come before with his own musical imagination. Ronnie Earl has never phoned it in yet. He remains one of the most exhilarating figures in modern blues.”
– Steve Pick, About.com
“The pacing, segues and production are masterfully done, and the unbridled passion in his playing creates a joyous, uplifting vibe.”
- Jeff Johnson, Chicago Sun-Times
“As Ronnie Earl continues to build on his guitar canon we get to reap his spiritual sincerity. Often while listening, especially to his more spiritual toned songs, you get that feeling of unfulfilled-musical-searching that Miles Davis had in his music.”
- Greg Szalony, Blues Blast
“Earl has previously displayed a talent for putting heart and soul into his playing, and here he produced the recording and wrote or co-wrote nine of the 14 cuts, most of which are melodic and lyrical even though there are no vocals-just the soaring cry and moan of Earl’s amazing Fender Strat through a Super-Reverb. His choice of covers is no less inspiring, especially an interpretation of Duke Pearson’s ‘Christo Redentor,’ which captures the beautiful melody in an inspired way and is a perfect choice for Earl’s style. Aided by the Hammond B-3/piano (and songwriting) of Dave Limina, Earl’s playing is a tone-tonic for the soul.”
– Eric Shoaf, Vintage Guitar
“The problem with reviewing a Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters disc is that you run out of accolades before you run out of disc. Stunning Guitar work! Great use of dynamics! Unmatched tone! Telepathic interplay with the band! Virtuosity in both jazz and blues! Mesmerizing tunes! Hot, Hot, Hot! This one is no different.”
– Mark Smith, Blues Source
"Spread the Love is another marvelous release from Earl and the Broadcasters. To paraphrase former NFL coach Bum Phillips, as far as blues guitarists go, Ronnie Earl may not be in a class by himself, but it doesn’t take long to call the roll."
- Graham Clarke, Phoenix Blues Society’s BluesBytes
“Study this disc as you would a slab by Duke Robillard or Grant Green because there's a hell of a lot here, none of it beholden to a grateful past save for the depth and ingenuity that history groomed. In some ways, Spread the Love is almost a textbook in how to play the guitar and should find an audience that will widen to take in everything offered. The masterful restraint and consummate taste alone present baroque possibilities, and I think this release will be retrospectively found to a watershed moment. Look for everything you've come to expect of the guy, and then look a whole lot more, 'cause it's right there.”
- Mark S. Tucker, FAME
“With the Broadcasters, his band of more than 20 years, Ronnie’s latest release shows him to be one of the most soulful blues/soul/jazz guitarists working today.”
- j. Poet, San Francisco Examiner