#tommy johnson

[phosphorusab]

Sinners and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are set only 5 years apart in Mississippi. Meaning hypothetically, Sammie and Tommy could have crossed paths.

They both have the Robert Leroy Johnson aesthetic, although Tommy Johnson was the original Faustian Bargain legend

[wats-am]

"Oh, Darlin'! For that, you traded yer everlastin' soul?"

Completely messed up on Delta's (fem!Delmar's) face, I knew I should have waited until tomorrow to ink her. But, I'm actually pretty pleased with fem!Tommy. I'm thinking of calling her Elvie, after Elvie Thomas. Elvie Johnson.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Robert Crumb Fans :: Tommy Johnson meets Mr. Natural at the Crossroads.

“Nov shmoz ka pop”!! Gene Ahern used the phrase in his unique comic strip “The Squirrel Cage!!” Surrealist humor at its finest!!

R Crumb has acknowledged this as the origin of Mr. Natural. Hunu!

[dirtylowdown2]

Canned Heat Blues · Tommy Johnson

Next to Son House and Charley Patton, no one was more important to the development of pre-Robert Johnson Delta blues than Tommy Johnson. Armed with a powerful voice that could go from a growl to an eerie falsetto range and a guitar style that had all of the early figures and licks of the Delta style clearly delineated, Johnson only recorded for two years -- from 1928 to 1930 -- but left behind a body of work that's hard to ignore.

The stories about his live performances -- where he would play the guitar behind his neck in emulation of Charley Patton's showboating while hollering the blues at a full-throated level for hours without a break -- are part of it. So is his uncontrolled womanizing and alcoholism, both of which constantly got him in trouble. Then there's the crossroads story. Yes, years before the infamous deal with the Devil at a deserted crossroad was being used as an explanation of the otherworldly abilities of young Robert Johnson, the story was first being told repeatedly about Tommy, often by the man himself to reinforce his abilities to doubting audiences.

He was born in 1896 in Hinds County, MS, on the George Miller plantation. Once the family moved to Crystal Springs in 1910, Tommy picked up the guitar, learning from his older brother, LeDell. By age 16, Johnson had run away from home to become a "professional" musician, largely supporting himself by playing on the street for tips. Tommy apparently spent most of the '20s drinking, womanizing, gambling, and playing music in the company of Rubin Lacy, Charley McCoy, Walter Vincent, and Ishmon Bracey when the money got low and, apparently, only when the mood struck him. By all accounts, Tommy felt no particular drive to promote himself relentlessly and -- while he did play music for pay until the very end of his life -- he certainly wasn't as serious about his career as he was about partying.

He cut his first records for the Victor (later RCA Victor, now BMG) label at sessions held in Memphis, TN, in 1928. Johnson's first releases hit the area hard, inspiring up-and-comers such as Howlin' Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Johnnie Temple, and Otis Spann.

He cut one more stack of great records for the Paramount label in 1930, largely through the maneuvering of fellow drinking buddy Charley Patton. Then the slow descent into total alcoholism started taking its toll, reducing his once prodigious talents to small, sporadic flickerings of his former genius. 

He worked on a medicine show with Ishmon Bracey in the '30s, but mostly seemed to be a mainstay of the juke and small-party dance circuit for the rest of his days. He was playing at a local house party in November of 1956 when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Whether the story about the deal with the Devil at the crossroads was something he truly believed, or just something Tommy said to drum up local interest in himself, it seems a bit odd that you'll find him buried at the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs. Maybe he mellowed out toward the end, maybe he found God. Some things about the blues you'll just never know.

[adamshallperish]

i love stories about someone selling their soul to the devil for musical ability or whatever because that would absolutely be me 100000% every time

[evilhorse]

Now step to it!

(Buck Rogers 2429 A.D. daily strip)

[vinylspinning]

Big Bill Broonzy: Good Time Tonight (1990)

As much as any other performer, Big Bill Broonzy helped develop and define the Chicago blues sound prior to the rise of Chess Records, contributing to the genre's transition from a rural to urban form over the course of his 40-year-career.

One of 17 children, the Mississippi native was born Lee Conley Bradley to former slaves in 1893 (possibly 1903) and raised on an Arkansas farm, where he played the violin in church and social functions before becoming a traveling minister as a teenager.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Broonzy settled in Chicago, where he worked odd jobs as a cook, pullman porter, and foundry worker, while playing in local bands and learning the guitar under the tutelage of Papa Charlie Jackson.

By the late '20s, he was recording for a number of labels (Gennet, Champion, Banner, Paramount) under pseudonyms like Sammy Sampson, Big Bill Johnson, and Big Bill Broomsly, but he was most prolific in the late 1930s, recording for Columbia.

This collection traces Broonzy's stylistic evolution across that decade, beginning with the same, stripped down, haunting Delta blues ("I Can't Be Satisfied," "Worrying You Off My Mind") performed by contemporary stylists like Charley Patton, Son House, even Muddy Waters in the early '40s, before he left the plantation for The Smoke.

By 1937, Broonzy and his accompanists were adding urban touches like piano ("Come Home Early," "Hattie Blues"), saxophone ("It's a Low Down Dirty Shame," "Woodie Doodie"), plus energetic shouts and happier themes ("Merry Go Round Blues," "Good Time Tonight") pointing to the birth of rhythm and blues in the following decade.

Finally, we're given glimpses of Broonzy the all-purpose entertainer as he incorporated popular elements from jazz, gospel, ragtime ("W.P.A. Rag"), and novelty numbers ("You've Got to Hit the Right Lick," which celebrates Babe Ruth), into his repertoire.

All this led to Broonzy subbing for the recently deceased Robert Johnson at John Hammond's legendary From Spirituals to Swing concert held at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1938, and once again the following year.

But, in a sobering reminder of the meager income afforded to African American musicians of the time, despite working steadily throughout the '40s, in 1950 Broonzy left Chicago to work as a janitor at Iowa State University!

Luckily, his reputation had spread across the Atlantic by then, and in '51 Broonzy participated in his first European tour and subsequently saw his music embraced by a new generation of both American folk singers (Pete Seger, Sonny Terry, etc.) and British acolytes (Bert Jansch, The Beatles).

Unfortunately Broonzy’s health faltered and he made his final recordings in 1957 (including a five-LP box in which he told the stories behind the songs he played), before cancer took one of his lungs and then his vocal chords; he died the next year at 65.

More Blues: Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Etta James, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Albert King, B.B. King, Mance Lipscomb, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Bessie Smith, Taj Mahal, Peetie Wheatstraw.

[z34l0t]