Tommy Johnson (musician)
Tommy Johnson ( * 1896 in Terry, Mississippi, † November 1, 1956 in Crystal Springs, Mississippi) was an influential American blues guitarist and singer. Along with Son House and Charley Patton, he was one of the leading musicians of the Delta Blues before Robert Johnson.
Life
Johnson came from a large family of farmers and began in 1910/ 1911 to play guitar. To 1912/1913 he left the south Mississippi with his girlfriend (who was twice as old as he is ) and settled in Cleveland, Mississippi, near the Dockery Plantation, down. There he met Charley Patton and Willie Brown; influenced by these, he learned to play the blues here. Around 1915, he returned as experienced musicians to his home area, where he used the new style of music and his own style increasingly refined. In 1916 he married and the couple went, together with Tommy's brother LeDell, back to the "Delta", [note 1] where Johnson worked as a Sharecropper.
Part of the myth Tommy Johnson not only his music but also his acrobatic performances, his numerous affairs, his heavy alcohol consumption and, not least through the set by himself in the world legend that he had the devil sold his soul to the blues properly can play. This legend was later carried over to Son House Robert Johnson.
1928 and 1930, Tommy Johnson two series of pieces on. Some of his best known songs are the Cool Drink Of Water Blues ( the Howlin ' Wolf I Asked For Water (She Brought Me Gasoline) processed ) and Maggie Campbell (based on Charley Patton " Screamin ' and Hollerin 'the Blues " and later by Robert Nighthawk adapted).
In his later years, his long-standing severe alcoholism had a negative impact. Johnson had always been drinking heavily. He had not even shied gelled methylated spirits, which will be delivered under the brand name " Sterno Canned Heat " in tin cans and he - diluted with water - related than cheap schnapps replacement. This " drink" Johnson sat in his Canned Heat Blues, a " monument".
Tommy Johnson died in 1956 of a heart attack during a performance. In 1986, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Reception
Among the blues greats who were influenced by Tommy Johnson, include Howlin 'Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Otis Spann, and countless others. Particularly strong was his influence on the band Canned Heat, which took its name from one of his pieces and his singer Johnsons adapted typical falsetto vocals. Even the most well-known piece of the band, On The Road Again, based on Johnson's Big Road Blues.