D.K. Harrell Urges New Blues Listeners to ‘Give It a Chance’

When D.K. Harrell began playing songs from his sophomore album Talkin’ Heavy for some of the people who know him best, the music they heard wasn’t what they expected.

For much of his life and career, the 27-year-old blues musician has studied B.B. King. From Harrell’s early playing style to his stage setup, the late blues giant’s influence has been clear.

But the 12-track album Talkin’ Heavy, produced by Christoffer “Kid” Andersen and released last month as Harrell’s Alligator Records debut, deviates from King’s style. While the album stays predominantly committed to traditional American blues, it also shows Harrell experimenting with jazzy and funky guitar tones, like on “Into the Room” and “PTLD.”

Hearing surprise at the guitar work from people like his manager “actually makes me feel good,” Harrell told Blues Rock Review during a recent interview, adding that some have told him they believe the music is “a very big step past” his 2023 debut album The Right Man.

Harrell may be only two albums into his career, but he’s already won a Blues Music Award (in the Best Emerging Artist Album category at last year’s ceremony) and has been singing the blues almost his entire life.

The story of how he came to embrace the genre as a 2-year-old starts with a toddler who was nonverbal until the day his mother took him for a drive and began playing some music at the urging of Harrell’s grandfather. When King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” came on in the car, Harrell’s mother heard something that shocked her.

“She looked over her shoulder, and there I was in my car seat, with my eyes closed, rocking from side to side, singing ‘The Thrill Is Gone.’” Harrell said. “She almost wrecked the car because she was so excited that I was finally talking.”

In the years since, Harrell has had his share of favorite artists, with James Brown playing a significant impact on his style as a teenager. But the blues has been a constant—as has King, whom Harrell voraciously studied by watching all the live video clips he could find on YouTube. And he wasn’t just watching King’s playing style and interactions with audience members—he was keeping track of the cables onstage, an attention to detail that is evident now in Harrell’s own performances.

More recently, Alligator Records Founder and President Bruce Iglauer became another blues mentor for Harrell. The two met in 2022 at the International Blues Challenge, and two years later, Iglauer invited Harrell to join Alligator’s roster.

“It was really smooth,” Harrell said of the transition. In general, Harrell tries not to get “overly excited” about potential opportunities—and that’s how he approached conversations about joining the legendary blues label. “If it’s meant for me, it’s meant for me; if it’s not, I understand that the train has to keep going.”

Harrell recalled how Iglauer helped shape the direction of “Liquor Stores and Legs,” one of the songs that now appears on Talkin’ Heavy. The track began as “a bragging song” that the label president didn’t believe was necessary because “‘D.K.’s a sweet guy,’” Harrell remembered Iglauer saying.

When Harrell went back to the drawing board, he thought of something his grandmother used to say when his then-teenaged cousin wanted to go out at night: “The only thing open late at night is liquor stores and legs.”

Harrell is quick to explain that the line “is not to offend any woman, anybody,” but is a saying that he found funny as a kid—and both Andersen and Iglauer agreed.

“Bruce liked it and laughed at it; he thought it was great,” Harrell said.

Revamping his lyrical approach is something Harrell did more than once on Talkin’ Heavy—and that is another way that his sophomore album differs from his first. Harrell recalled feeling pressure to make his second album “better than the first one,” and said the biggest challenge he faced was “being more in depth with my lyrics.”

“If you listen to The Right Man record, a lot of my lyrical writing was very simple,” he explained. “It’s still simple to this day—but it’s a little more broad, if that makes sense.”

In contrast, Harrell described Talkin’ Heavy’s lyrics as more poetic and playful, a shift that Andersen encouraged.

“Kid Andersen taught me to, you know, don’t just sit down and just write whatever you know—actually think in depth about what you want to write about,” Harrell said. “We even had a moment where he was like, ‘This is lazy writing.’ I was like, ‘I’m trying, Kid.’”

In addition to providing songwriting guidance and gifting Harrell “one of the best compliments” he’s ever received (“He said, ‘You might not play chords, but you hear chords,’” Harrell recalled), Andersen was aware of Harrell’s artistic goals.

“He understands what I’m trying to get out of my songs and out of the recording process, and out of the whole project,” Harrell said, adding that his “gimmick” as a musician is to combine contemporary lyrics with classic-sounding blues.

“I want people to go, ‘Man, this sounds like something that was recorded 50 years ago,’” he explained. “So it’s old and it’s fresh at the same time.”

Looking ahead, Harrell has several concert dates and festival appearances already on the books. But his goals for the future aren’t as flashy.

“What I would like in the next two years is for life and what I do to keep me humble,” he said. “I never want to be too big for my britches.”

As for Talkin’ Heavy, he hopes listeners will recognize the love and fun he invested into each song, and that they’ll find in it music that deeply resonates.

“I want people who are not familiar with the blues, are not really big listeners to the blues, to just give it a chance,” he said. “Because I try to make it fun; I try to make it interesting. All blues is not sad blues, or old people’s music. It can be very entertaining, very fun, if you make it.”