DISCOGRAPHY 1969-90 (14CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Tommy Johnson (Jan.1896 – Nov. 1, 1956) was an American Delta blues
musician who recorded in the late 1920s and was known for his eerie
falsetto voice and intricate guitar playing. He was unrelated to fellow
blues musician Robert Johnson.
Johnson was born near Terry, Mississippi, and moved around 1910 to Crystal Springs, where he lived for most of his life. He learned to play the guitar and, by 1914, was supplementing his income by playing at local parties with his brothers Major and LeDell.
In 1916 he married and moved to Webb Jennings' plantation near Drew, Mississippi, close to the Dockery Plantation. There he met other musicians, including Charlie Patton and Willie Brown.
By 1920 Johnson was an alcoholic and an itinerant musician, based in Crystal Springs but traveling widely around the South, sometimes accompanied by Papa Charlie McCoy. In 1928 he made his first recordings, with McCoy, for Victor Records, including "Canned Heat Blues", in which he sang of drinking methanol from the cooking fuel Sterno.
The song features the refrain "canned heat, mama, sure, Lord, killing me." The blues group Canned Heat took their name from this song. Johnson's "Big Road Blues" inspired Canned Heat's song "On the Road Again". A significantly different version of the song appears as "Canned Heat" on the album Big Road Blues by K.C.Douglas...... (Wikipedia)
Johnson was born near Terry, Mississippi, and moved around 1910 to Crystal Springs, where he lived for most of his life. He learned to play the guitar and, by 1914, was supplementing his income by playing at local parties with his brothers Major and LeDell.
In 1916 he married and moved to Webb Jennings' plantation near Drew, Mississippi, close to the Dockery Plantation. There he met other musicians, including Charlie Patton and Willie Brown.
By 1920 Johnson was an alcoholic and an itinerant musician, based in Crystal Springs but traveling widely around the South, sometimes accompanied by Papa Charlie McCoy. In 1928 he made his first recordings, with McCoy, for Victor Records, including "Canned Heat Blues", in which he sang of drinking methanol from the cooking fuel Sterno.
The song features the refrain "canned heat, mama, sure, Lord, killing me." The blues group Canned Heat took their name from this song. Johnson's "Big Road Blues" inspired Canned Heat's song "On the Road Again". A significantly different version of the song appears as "Canned Heat" on the album Big Road Blues by K.C.Douglas...... (Wikipedia)
NEW!
1999-Tommy Johnson & Associates @FLAC
CHRIS THOMAS KING
2000-The Legend of Tommy Johnson Act.1 @FLAC