Earl Oliver | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 23, 1948 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Occupation | Writer, musician, variety and street entertainer |
| Genre | Professional wrestling |
| Spouse | Lonna Oliver (c. 1974–present) |
| Relatives | wrestler Ray "Rip the Crippler" Oliver (uncle) |
| Website | |
| earloliver | |
Earl Oliver (born June 23, 1948) is an American writer, musician, variety, street entertainer, and graphic artist. An accomplished blues and jazz guitarist and singer in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, popularly known as the Walkin' Blues Man, he hosted a popular cable-access television program, "Earl Oliver & Friends: Live from LaVal's", later called "Live on Location", that aired in 16 stations throughout the region from 1992 to 1995. He has also been the lead vocalist for several California-based bands, most recently, the Groovinators.
From May, 2005 until August, 2013, Oliver was a regular performer on the Skunk Train, a heritage railway which runs daily from Fort Bragg and Willits, California, and at events such as the Palo Alto Art Walk and Project Read for the San Francisco Public Library. In 2001, he was called "one of San Francisco's undiscovered treasures" by San Francisco Arts Magazine.
The nephew of professional wrestler Ray "Rip the Crippler" Oliver, Oliver is a longtime wrestling columnist and historian. He is perhaps best known in the internet wrestling community as the founder of Solie's Vintage Wrestling, a historical professional wrestling website dedicated to the memory of announcer Gordon Solie, which is the oldest continually active pro wrestling website on the internet.