Tommy Johnson - Tommy Johnson (1928-1930)

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1998
Styles: Delta Blues
Time: 40:44
Size: 93,7 MB
Covers: Full

(3:37) 1. Cool Drink of Water Blues
(3:23) 2. Big Road Blues
(3:11) 3. Bye Bye Blues
(3:40) 4. Maggie Campbell Blues
(3:42) 5. Canned Heat Blues
(3:30) 6. Lonesome Home Blues
(3:20) 7. Lonesome Home Blues
(3:17) 8. Big Fat Mama Blues
(3:12) 9. I Wonder to Myself
(3:10) 10. Slidin' Delta
(3:14) 11. Lonesome Home Blues
(3:21) 12. Black Mare Blues

Delta blues musician Tommy Johnson recorded only in the late 1920s and was known for his eerie falsetto voice and intricate guitar playing. He lived in Crystal Springs for most of his live and played local parties with his brothers Major and LeDell. He also traveled the South and met and played with Charlie Patton, Willie Brown and Papa Charlie McCoy. In 1928 he recorded his first songs for Victor, including "Canned Heat Blues", in which he sang of drinking methanol from cooking fuel Sterno (Johnson was an alcoholist). Tommy Johnson recorded only 2 further sessions in 1928 and 1929. While playing for an audience he performed tricks with his guitar, playing it between his legs and behind his head. His style influenced singers as Robert Nighthawk and Howlin' Wolf. Johnson composed his own songs, blending fragments of folk poetry and personalized lyrics into hiss guitar accompaniments. He remained a popular performer in the 1930s and 1940s, sometimes performing with Ishman Bracey.

This 12-song collection (missing only two of Johnson's works, which have never turned up), is surprisingly clean and crisp. "Cool Drink of Water Blues" and "Canned Heat Blues" are by far the best known of Johnson's works, but they've got a lot of worthy pieces surrounding them. "Big Road Blues" is a fine showcase for Johnson's and Charlie McCoy's paired guitars, playing two complex, interwoven figures. And "Bye Bye Blues" and "Maggie Campbell Blues" show off his unique vocal qualities, not the dark heaviness typical of bluesmen at the time, but a more flexible, lighter-toned, more relaxed instrument that, coupled with his and McCoy's guitars, made his music as "busy" as it was beautiful. The songs featuring only Johnson's guitar are no less intriguing, if only for his ability to get a lot of sound from some surprisingly simple strumming and picking. The later songs, "I Wonder to Myself," "Slidin' Delta," "Lonesome Home Blues," and "Black Mare Blues," leave something to be desired in terms of sound, but at least they're represented here. -- Allmusic.

Tommy Johnson (1928-1930)

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