Most of the musicians who are sadly overlooked in the scene
\ntoday are some of the hardest working – the blues musicians.<\/p>\n
Way too many of these artists toil in one-night stands playing
\nto rooms that may or may not be filled, and release records that,
\nmore often than not, end up hidden at music stores and in radio
\nstations.<\/p>\n
In the legendary Pierce Memorial Archives (open to the public –
\nNOT), blues has always held a special place of honor. The emotion
\nthese musicians pour into their works can be heard and felt, and
\nthe Archives has a special portion reserved for such artists.<\/p>\n
One of these is Jimmy Johnson, whose album
\nBar Room Preacher<\/i> was released on CD just a few years ago;
\nthe vinyl has been out since, I believe, 1985. This is a classic
\nexample of contemporary blues at its smoothest and best, and can be
\nfound on a pedestal in the blues section of the Archives, next to
\nartists such as B.B. King, Lonnie Brooks and Son Seals. (Some of
\nthese names don’t sound familiar? Don’t worry, I’ll be talking more
\nabout them in future editions of “The Daily Vault.”)<\/p>\n
Johnson is a solid lead player and an okay rhythm guitarist, but
\nit is his vocals that carry most of the music into the next level.
\nHis cover of Fenton Robinson’s “You Don’t Know What Love Is”
\nreaches levels even Robinson himself didn’t hit; the tempo is more
\nupbeat, the leads tastier, the singing more soulful. One listen to
\nthis, and you’ll know that the blues is supposed to invoke several
\ndifferent feelings in the listener. Johnson is able to hit almost
\nevery one of them at just the right time.<\/p>\n
Johnson is comfortable performing anyone’s music, from Robinson
\nto John Lee Hooker (“When My First Wife Quit Me”) to his own
\noriginals like “Heap See.” The album’s instrumental closer,
\n“Missing Link,” highlights incredible playing by Johnson,
\nkeyboardist Jene Pickett, bassist Larry Exum and drummer Fred
\nGrady. In fact, don’t write off Johnson as just a blues musician;
\nhis three compositions on this one all stand out as amazing.<\/p>\n
In fact, very few cuts on
\nBar Room Preacher<\/i> miss the mark, the only one being “Chicken
\nHeads,” which seems a little silly to be included on this one. Of
\nthe nine songs on the CD, this one seems the most out of place.<\/p>\n
This album, originally released in France, was brought to these
\nshores by Alligator Records, a Chicago-based blues label who, for
\nover 25 years, have been finding the best blues musicians in the
\ncountry and recording them. Jimmy Johnson sounded right at home
\nwith the Alligator lineup on
\nBar Room Preacher<\/i>. If you can find this one at the local
\nrecord shop, dig it out of the bins, dust it off, slap it into the
\nCD player, and prepare to be wowed by one of the blues masters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5622],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-24270","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jimmy-johnson","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/24270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/24270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24270"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=24270"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=24270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}