Johnny Shines Johnny Shines (LP, 180g Vinyl)

(Advent Productions) 11 tracks - Re-issue of the original 1974 LP album

The fact that Johnny Shines is one of the few remaining bluesmen who sing and play in the classic Mississippi Delta blues style is, in itself, of great note. That he is equally at home with the most modern of urban blues stylings is quite remarkable. That nearly all the songs he sings are his own composition, and he brings to them a marvelously powerful and flexible voice and a lucid guitar style, point to him as being quite unique.

Born in Frazier, Tennessee in 1915, he acquired his musical upbringing in Mississippi and Arkansas where he knew the best of them — Charlie Patton, Howling Wolf and the legendary Robert Johnson. Johnny travelled extensively with Robert, and Robert's personality and music left an indelible impression on him. In fact it was his interpretation of Johnson's Walking Blues that he recorded for the small Chic-ago company J.O.B. in 1952, that eventually brought him to the attention of blues lovers when the worldwide appreciation of blues began in the early 60's.

That record was so remarkable in its recreation of Johnson's style that attempts were made to locate the performer. Johnny had made his home in Chicago in the 40's, but no one knew of his whereabouts and some even thought he might be dead. For-tunately he was very much alive. He had quit music after having become rather disgruntled with not really getting anywhere
and after some rather dishearting experiences with some of the small Chicago record companies. He made his living as a construction worker and earned some money on the side as a photographer at blues clubs. It was while photographing patrons at Sylvios, the club where Howling Wolf used to play, that he was eventually rediscovered and encouraged to return to the music field.

His initial return to music was somewhat tentative. His guitar playing was rather rusty after years of inactivity and for a long while he acceeded to his audience's requests for one Robert Johnson song after another. But Johnny Shines is a very proud and intelligent man and was not content to live in anyone's shadow, even someone like Robert Johnson, who he admired so greatly. He steadily worked at perfecting his own songs and improving and diversifying his guitar playing so that by the end of the 60's he could hardly be recognized as the same performer who had been found in the mid sixties.

He is now, as when this album was recorded, at the zenith of his talents. He is continually writing new songs and working on new guitar phrasings and, with rare exceptions, sings only his own songs. As he points out, singing other people's songs hinders his own writing. Whether he is singing country or urban blues his songs have a unique urgency and personal quality to them.

On this album we hear Johnny in a variety of settings. The solo performances echo his Delta past with just a hint of Rob-ert Johnson still lingering on ... but Johnny pursues his own ineluctable path. The performances with a band cover the spectrum from downhome Chicago club settings to modern blues ballads. On these cuts he is accompanied by one of Los Angeles' finest blues bands, featuring the stunning guitar playing of Phillip Walker, a great new blues discovery. Johnny is now 58 — still quite young as blues singers go — and has many years of exciting and creative music making ahead of him. Frank Scott. January 1974