As significant as his recording career has been, it is the live Sleepy LaBeef that is important. Today, at 67, Sleepy still performs two hundred shows a year and plays with such energy that people a third of his age are annihilated when they attempt to keep up with him.

Sleepy La Beefs live sets are truly indescribable. One must see them to understand that he is doing nothing less than giving up his body to the spirit of the music and testifying. In this day of studio effects and ever-changing technology, many record buyers wonder why a live show even matters. Sleepy La Beef is the answer.

Mr. LaBeef is as modest and spiritually grounded as he is ablaze, arguably the world's greatest living roots legend, and he seems unaware that he is the inspiration to three generations of roots music lovers.

"Ah, I'm just out there having fun," he says, in his deep, humble, Arkansas drawl.

So speaks the giant in the black Stetson hat. The Bull. The Road Warrior. The Human Jukebox. Sleepy La Beef.

-.. John Kite

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