"Los Angeles native Larry Carlton came to a fork in the road-should he continue the lucrative path of a studio musician, playing guitar and composing for other artists at a steady, predictable pace, or should he deviate from that path and embark upon a risky solo career? In 1978 Carlton choose the latter and has been recording for the likes of Warner Bros., MCA Records and GRP Records since 1978.Prior to taking the leap to become a solo artist, Carlton had a pretty impressive rap sheet as a studio musician during the 1970s and early 1980s. He clocked in studio time with such celebrated artists as Sammy Davis Jr., Quincy Jones, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson and Joni Mitchell, among a slew of others. Although not yet realizing his dream to perform as a solo artist, Carlton was a session guitarist for nearly 500 albums per year in the ‘70s, with his most notable project as Joni Mitchell's critically lauded Court and Spark. Carlton's repertoire, influenced by the jazz guitar of B.B. King, also includes the music credits for TV and films like Who's the Boss and the theme song for Hillstreet Blues. Carlton first picked up a guitar at age six and hasn't put it down since, releasing his first LP in 1968 (Uni's With a Little Help from My Friends,) but didn't ink a major label contract until 10 years later with Warner Bros. His eponymous debut for the label was followed by four more throughout the early ‘80s including the Grammy-nominated 1983 album Friends, but Warner Bros. eventually dropped him. Carlton signed with MCA and released an all-acoustic album, Discovery, which spawned a remake of Michael McDonald's ""Minute by Minute"" that earned Carlton a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.In the late ‘80s the musician was shot in a random bout of violence outside his Burbank recording studio; the bullet shattered his vocal cord but luckily Carlton was able to recover, and eventually he formed Helping Innocent People (HIP), a non-profit devoted to helping people affected by random gun violence. Carlton continued to release albums well into the ‘90s and the new millennium."
