Clarence Garlow
b. 27 February 1911, Welsh, Louisiana, USA, d. 24 July 1986, Beaumont, Texas, USA. Brought up in the black community in South Louisiana and East Texas. Garlow, aka Bon Ton, learned guitar and accordian. On the former, his principal influence was T-Bone Walker, and the smooth, jazzy Walker sound is to be heard on many of his records, particularly the early ones which appeared in the late '40s and early '50s on locally-distributed record labels such as Macy's, Lyric and Feature. Other records show a more rocking R&B tendency, and one single on Flair Records, that pairs Route 90 and Crawfishin' is a classic of its kind. Later, there was a fine zydeco pairing on Folk Star Records, while recording for Jay Miller he moved towards the swamp blues sound. Garlow retired from playing in the early '60s, but worked for some years as a postman and a disc jockey in Beaumont, Texas.