6 Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to the Blues Musician and Music Critic Who Taught Mick Jagger Harmonica

Blues harmonica legend Tony Glover, a contemporary of Bob Dylan who gave lessons to Mick Jagger, died in St. Paul, Minnesota, on this day (May 29) in 2019. He was 79 years old.

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Along with “Spider” John Koerner and Dave “Snaker” Ray, Glover released three albums with the influential blues-folk group Koerner, Ray & Glover.

The trio cut their teeth on the same Minneapolis folk scene that shaped Bob Dylan. The “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer occasionally played with Glover, whom he called “a friend to everything I am… who feels and thinks and walks and talks just like I do.”

In addition to playing music, Tony Glover also wrote about it—a lot. He penned articles for publications like Crawdaddy, Cream, and Rolling Stone. For the latter, he reviewed albums by Bonnie Raitt, the Allman Brothers, Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix.

The Life and Career of Tony Glover

David Curtis “Tony” Glover was born October 7, 1939, in Minneapolis. He smiled infrequently growing up, preferring to spend time among gravestones after midnight to the company of his peers.

“And when I heard blues on the radio in the middle of the night it was like, ‘Um-hmm.’ It was like coming home,” Glover once told Minnesota Public Radio.

He met bandmates Koerner and Ray in the 1960s folk music scene around the University of Minnesota. Both men attended the Minneapolis campus.

Forming Koerner, Ray, & Glover in 1963, the trio got their start playing Minneapolis coffee shops and college after-parties. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Lead Belly
and Bo Diddley, their work reached fans all the way in Europe.

As a blues musician, Glover adopted the nickname “Little Sun,” inspired by other harmonica greats like Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Terry.

“And there’s also a reference to the fact that I never smiled much, which is why it’s spelled s-u-n, Little Sun,” he told MPR.

The Musical Generations He Inspired

Tony “Little Sun” Glover taught harmonica to the New York Dolls’ David Johansen and the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger. However, he also left his mark on others.

Those influenced by Glover’s grasp of the blues include Beck, Lucinda Williams, and Patti Smith.

[RELATED: Check Out Barbra Streisand’s Unlikely New Duet with Bob Dylan on the Standard “The Very Thought of You”]

“He was a man with an unshakable personal code,” Smith told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune after his death. “He was Little Sun Glover, leaving us silently, his rays quietly reverberating.”

Featured image by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images