From Mexico to Cambridge and back

John Thurman Hunter Jr. was born in Ringgold, Louisiana, United States. He was raised on a farm in Magnolia, Arkansas, but by his early twenties was working in a box factory in Beaumont, Texas. He bought his first guitar after attending a B. B. King concert, and then adopted the stage name of Long John Hunter in 1953. Hunter saw his first single, "She Used to Be My Woman" b/w "Crazy Girl", released by Duke Records in 1953. By 1957 he had relocated to El Paso, Texas, and found employment playing at the Lobby Club in Juárez, Mexico. He remained there for over thirteen years, seeing the release of several singles in the early 1960s on local record labels. These tracks included one of his most notable numbers, "El Paso Rock".
In 1988, his album, Texas Border Town Blues was released. In 1992, Ride with Me preceded a couple more albums for Alligator Records, Border Town Legend (1996) and Swinging from the Rafters (1997). In 1999, Hunter teamed up with Lonnie Brooks and Phillip Walker to release Lone Star Shootout.
Hunter appeared at the Long Beach Blues Festival in both 1996 and 2000. His most recent album release was Looking for a Party (2009).