Pomona, CA (March 04)—There are some people who go through life never finding out what it is they were put on Earth for, sadly never finding that passion that drives their soul.

Others might discover their calling in midlife, which may or may not cause a crisis, depending on whether they act on those dreams and how much upheaval it may cause in the lives of those around them.

Sometimes, that drive is overpowering; other times, it might cause an edgy wistfulness shrouded in what could have been.

Then there are those rare, lucky people who know early on exactly what path they will head down. For them, it is as simple as throwing a light switch on.

David Kearney was 6 years old when he saw the fire and passion of his future. It lay in a case under his uncle's bed.

"My grandmother raised me," the Houston native says of his childhood in Kissimmee, Fla., "and she was my Uncle Willie's mother. He used to play guitar, and it fascinated me. I would sneak into his room and pull it out of its case; he kept it under his bed. I would mess with the strings, tightening them, trying to get the sound I wanted.

"But I couldn't do it like my uncle, and I'd end up falling on the floor, kicking and screaming, throwing a real tantrum. And my grandmother would come and try and find out what was the matter with me."

He chuckles.

"She eventually got tired of running back and forth, and finally she asked my uncle, 'please do me a favor, and teach this boy how to play that guitar before I kill him.' So I'd sit in his lap and he'd put my fingers on the strings and show me how to make sounds. For me, there was never any question what I would do with my life. I made up my mind when I picked up the guitar that that was it."

He hasn't stopped since. Tonight, he plays at Yesteryears Cafe in Pomona, where his passion for the blues music he learned as a youngster and the showmanship he developed through countless dates on the road in various bands will be on display. But the name "David Kearney" will be nowhere in sight; instead, the marquee will read "Guitar Shorty."

"I started playing weekends in Tampa with an 18-piece band led by Walter Johnson, and he'd sit me on a stool out in front and told me to just stroke along with the rhythm, playing the chords in front of me as I learned the songs, which I did."

It wasn't long before the young teenager was the featured guitarist and vocalist, and eventually was nicknamed Guitar Shorty, which he's kept.

Blues legend Willie Dixon heard him, and brought him up to Chicago, where he cut his first single at 17. Soon, he was on the road playing guitar with another legend, Ray Charles.

"Ray loved to hear me sing 'Sweet Little Angel,' and it would be the tune that he'd come on stage for," Shorty says. "He would show me chord progressions, and explain them to me, and he taught me how to concentrate on the time, not to be too hasty to do things on the guitar, whether playing lead or rhythm."

He left Charles's band to go on the road with another hero, Guitar Slim, whose legendary stage antics - rolling on the floor, snaking the cord as he ran into the crowd - Shorty soon began adapting for his own use.

"I figured if he can do that, then I could do back flips," he says simply.

The showmanship and physicality of Shorty's guitar playing would eventually have an impact on another young guitarist, who would also become his brother-in-law.

"When I was living in Seattle, this young woman would come in every weekend and request 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles," he says.

Eventually, they began dating and married. Her name was Marsha Hendrix, Jimi's stepsister.

"He used to come see me play, and at the time his style was mine. I can hear things in 'Purple Haze' and 'Hey Joe,' which I do now as a tribute to both of us, that were from me. He took what I had and did something with it. And when we finally met, it was simply 'Welcome to the family, bro.' "

Shorty ended up in Los Angeles, and has been in Southern California ever since, more than 30 years. He made his first solo album in 1990 while on tour in England, and it earned the W.C. Handy Award for Contemporary Foreign Blues Album the following year.

Since then, he has recorded five more, all to rave reviews. His latest, Watch Your Back, his first for Alligator Records, is still selling extremely well.

"There have been a few bumps on the road," he says, "but I don't think I'll ever quit doing this, as long as I'm drawing breath."

Source: Paul Andersen, U-Entertainment