MAKING HISTORICAL JUSTICE: 92-YEAR-OLD BLUES MASTER JIMMY JOHNSON NOMINATED FOR THE BLUES MUSIC AWARDS

Mississippi born Chicago blues master and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Johnson has been nominated in the Traditional Blues Album category for his best selling CD “Every Day of Your Life”.

90 YEARS YOUNG JIMMY JOHNSON returns to the recording studio for the rst time in over a decade.
It has been precisely forty years since his Delmark debut Johnson’s Whacks. Delmark celebrates Jimmy’s home- coming by releasing Every Day of Your Life, an album comprised of ve original songs and Jimmy’s unique take on four other tunes including a solo performance of Jimmy singing and playing piano on the Bobby “Blue” Bland hit “Lead Me On”. Two different stellar Chicago bands back Jimmy throughout this album. Johnson was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He has played professionally in Chicago since1959 and has worked with Freddie King, Albert King, Magic Sam and Otis Rush among many others. Jimmy has always had an R&B style of blues and
he brings it to this new album, his fourth on Delmark. (LINER NOTES BY BILL DAHL)

The title track has been released also as a digital single

Four decades ago, Jimmy Johnson permanently established himself as a front-rank Chicago bluesman with his unusually imaginative Delmark debut album Johnson’s Whacks. Now he’s come full circle: Jimmy’s back on Delmark with this exciting release, which shows that he remains a vital blues force into his 90s. Johnson’s fluid, slicing guitar licks dart and spark with unpredictable elasticity throughout this set. His voice soars to the heavens time and again, never misplacing its melismatic passion no matter the tempo.

From the funky opening original “Every Day Of Your Life,” constructed around a wise lyrical message, to a churning “Down In The Valley” and exquisitely tailored revivals of the lights-out slow blues “Strange Things Happening” and a hard- driving “I Need You So Bad,” Jimmy is never less than masterful. Few contemporary bluesmen are so devastating when working in a minor key— witness Johnson’s personalized treatment of Fenton Robinson’s classic “Somebody Loan Me A Dime.” “My Ring,” another standout original, takes a swaying and unexpected reggae turn (pushing the stylistic envelope has long been one of Jimmy’s trademarks), and Johnson sits down behind the 88s for a solo reprise of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s uplifting “Lead Me On” to close the album in deeply moving style.

Jimmy pays tribute to his good friend Fenton Robinson

Funny thing is, Jimmy only became a full-time blues guitarist in the mid -1970s. Prior to that, he mostly traversed the R&B side of the tracks. Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Johnson grew up along with another future blues luminary, Matt Murphy. “I picked up a guitar because Murphy had a guitar,” he says. Sacred and secular sounds competed for his attention. “My first time of singing in front of an audience, I was singing gospel,” notes Jimmy. “My uncle had a Victrola, the ones you wind up, and I got to hear John Lee Hooker, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson.”

A great original by Jimmy

TRACKS 1, 2, 4, 7: Jimmy Johnson – VOCALS & LEAD GUITAR Rico McFarland – GUITAR Roosevelt Purifoy – PIANO, HAMMOND B3 ORGAN J.R. Fuller-BASS Pooky Styx-DRUMS Typhanie Monique-VOCALS (1) Curt Bley – BASS Ernie Adams – DRUMS Julia A. Miller and Elbio Barilari – VOCALS (3)
TRACK 9: Jimmy Johnson – VOCAL & PIANO

All tracks recorded at Delmark Records’ Riverside Studio March 26th, April 22nd, July 10th, 2019.

Album Production and Supervision: Julia A. Miller
Produced by Elbio Barilari
Recorded at Riverside Studio, in Chicago by Steve Wagner, March 26, April 22, & July 10, 2019 Mixed by Elbio Barilari and Steve Wagner
Instrumental Arrangement by “Big Ray” Stewart
Vocal Arrangement on “Every Day of Your Life by Elbio Barilari

Jimmy on piano: Bobby Bland’s “Lead Me On”