Tommy Johnson
Born: 1896, Terry, Mississippi
Died: November 1, 1956, Crystal Springs, Mississippi
Tommy
Johnson was a hell-raiser who could belt out the blues with a wide vocal
range, from a low throaty snarl to a high falsetto. He had a dramatic
flair in performance similar to his contemporary, Delta blues king
Charley Patton, and in the early, pre-Robert Johnson days his influence
on the genre was second only to that of Patton and Son House. He was not
a virtuoso on the guitar, but had an original, evocative style,
well-matched to his theatrical delivery. Johnson significantly
influenced blues greats Muddy Waters, Robert Nighthawk and especially
Howlin' Wolf, who would carry on and even outdo the Patton/Johnson
tradition of incendiary, down-and-dirty showmanship. Johnson was also
the quintessential blues bad boy, with a penchant for rampant womanizing
and for alcohol, the latter of which led him to drastic extremes. He was
known to down denatured alcohol, used for artificial heat, when the real
thing wasn't available, a habit he documented in his original song
"Canned Heat," from which the 1960s blues-rock group took its name.
Johnson left behind a small but outstanding collection of recordings,
almost all of which became classics.
Tommy
Johnson was a hell-raiser who could belt out the blues with a wide vocal
range, from a low throaty snarl to a high falsetto. He had a dramatic
flair in performance similar to his contemporary, Delta blues king
Charley Patton, and in the early, pre-Robert Johnson days his influence
on the genre was second only to that of Patton and Son House. He was not
a virtuoso on the guitar, but had an original, evocative style,
well-matched to his theatrical delivery. Johnson significantly
influenced blues greats