Lorenzo was born in Ocala, Florida, February 11, 1925, to Frank and Henrieta Harrison. He was the chief musician of the Jewell Dominion church for over forty years. His desire as a young man was to use his talent playing music for the Lord, while traveling with the Overseer, Bishop M.L. Jewell.
Lorenzo was influenced early in his music career by Willie Eason, Henry Nelson, and Fred Neal, just to name a few. He played his sacred steel guitar better known as Lorenzo’s Harp, with the skill of a surgeon often redefining what could be played on the instrument.
Using the Morley Wah Pedal, he created a sound and style of music never before heard in churches and changed the way most people perceived the steel guitar. People came from miles around to hear him play. Lorenzo traveled and recorded on the Nashboro Record label with the Jewell Gospel Trio playing the bass fiddle and steel guitar. He was inducted into the Sacred Steel Hall of Fame in 2010.
Bishop Lorenzo L. Harrison passed away in Indianapolis, Indiana December 26, 1986, and will be remembered as one of the greatest steel guitarists to ever grace the music world.
Sacred Steel is an African-American gospel tradition that features the steel guitar in religious services. It originated in Pentecostal churches in the 1930s
It developed in the Church of the Living God, particularly in the Keith and Jewell Dominions.
Sacred Steel gained wider recognition through performances by artists like Robert Randolph, Calvin Cooke, Aubrey Ghent and the Campbell Brothers, who brought the genre to international fame.