Louisiana Red would, often as not, use pick-up musicians on his gigs.  He needed no rehearsals and they only needed to accompany him.

John Harrison had the  task of accompanying Red on harmonica several times.
Here is his tribute to Red…

R.O.Y.G.B.I.V.

 A very wise man who even inspired ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi once said.

 ” …..the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world ,

is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. …..

 To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, – all in one.”

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

  Mr. Iverson Minter aka "Louisiana Red" was such a great human soul,
the kind whose warmth you could feel pulsating from the far side of a large room.
 A man who sometimes showed a silver dollar to a new moon
A man who sometimes got lucky
A man who if elected for president
Would have abolished alcohol and tobacco
 
A man who if elected on this ticket
Would have expected a very brief innings in the oval office
 A man who wrote poems about kites
 A man who got beaten a lot, yet
A man who knew how to win
 
A man who had to take an awful lot of bad
Yet knew how to give an awful lot more good in return
 A man who could  be so tremendously blue
Much more so than me or you
 
A man who sang and played with such a rare passion,
That his sound checks were often even better than his concerts

 A man who sometimes saw too many things but
A man who never ceased to convey to others what he had seen in a clear and plain way
 
A man steeped in the poetry and prophecy of the blues
A man who wrote songs and played the blues guitar and harp in his own unique way
Louisiana Red,
First colour of the rainbow.

„Many thanks for being and seeing and telling what you saw“

– John Harrison

There is an old native American Indian saying which goes,

„If the the eyes know no tears, the soul can see no rainbows.”