|
Post by musicman on Jun 14, 2014 8:15:49 GMT -5
It seems to me that not many people discuss Johnny Shines. Personally, I find him a real talented blues artist.
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jun 15, 2014 1:27:53 GMT -5
It seems to me that not many people discuss Johnny Shines. Personally, I find him a real talented blues artist. He came to record rather late in life but soon made up for it. www.wirz.de/music/shinefrm.htm
|
|
|
Post by musicman on Jun 15, 2014 6:27:17 GMT -5
Yes he did AlanB. Being a "local" musician, I don't know a lot about him, other than I like his music. Did he accompany a lot of better known artists?
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jun 15, 2014 7:23:30 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jul 5, 2014 6:00:45 GMT -5
An interview conducted on his first solo UK tour - Melody Maker , 4 April 1970, p.10 (less photo)
Johnny Shines By Max Jones
It would be hard for any blues collector to talk to Johnny Shines for any length of time without mentioning Robert Johnson, the Mississippi guitarist with whom he travelled in the thirties and by whom he was so influenced.
When I met Shines in the Red Lion — the MM’s lunchtime office — just before he returned to the States last week, I got onto Johnson quite soon. Johnny knows the interest there is here in " Little Robert," and expects questions about him and requests for his songs.
Shines was born just outside Memphis on April 25, 1915. seems to have partnered Johnson on various journeys through Tennessee, Arkansas and other States from about 1935 until shortly before his death in '37.
They worked, presumably in jukes and at Saturday night dances through much of the South — sometimes playing separately and sometimes as a team. All Johnson's records were, of course, made in Texas during '36 and '37. Shines didn't record until February, 1946 in Chicago, and those four titles were never issued.
Moved
What I hadn't realised was that Shines and Johnson played in New York. " Yes, he went up to New York and I went there, and both of us worked in rent parties in New York. I think that would have been in 1937 not long before he died", Johnny told me
"After a short time there he left me and went over in Jersey. I didn't see him but I kind of knew what he was doing. In those times, it wasn't hard to keep up with Robert. Wherever he went and played, I'd usually get news of him.
"The next time I caught up with him was in St Louis, I think. Then he went to Helena, Arkansas. And some while afterwards he passed. Yes, he like to keep moving. Me too. I always did like to go. I still do. Lots of guys like to spend their time sleeping. I like to see it."
A question, which seems unlikely to he answered precisely, concerns Robert Johnson's age. Shines said, as I had expected, that he didn't know for sure. But he confirmed the impression we have of a young man, perhaps 22 years old when all those remarkable recordings were created.
No I n ever did ask .Robert how old he was. But I always assumed he was just a little older than I was — a year or a year and a half, I'd say. I'll be 55 next month, on the 25th day. So Robert Johnson would be 56, I believe, if he had lived."
When I heard Shines at the 100 Club there were requests for some Johnson items — songs closely associated with him —and Johnny obliged with a few. After he had knocked out a few contemporary-sounding songs I even heard cries of " How about a folk-blues?"
Different
I asked Shines how he reacted to all these strange British customs. He said he had not been troubled. Audiences were audiences and he had long ago learned to tailor his programme to suit their tastes.
"Here, he said' "I have to, do my own show. "On a previous visit to Europe, with the Chicago All Stars organised by Willie Dixon, it had been different. Then they featured the group.
As for the folk-blues requests, Johnny's opinion was that "when they say a folk-blues l guess they mean the gutbucket blues." And if that is what the crowd demands, that is what he tries to give them.
Original
"I arrange my programme according to my audience, to how they're feeling at that particular time. I always have done that, so this is no different to me."
"Once you're in a place and have met your audience, you plan your programme. Of course you can't always stick to it because you get a reaction to certain songs. to a tempo, a certain beat, and that changes your plan.
"Sometimes you run into a crowd that likes to up the tempo, and you may go all the way up to that 6/8 tempo. Then you run into a crowd that like the real down home gutbucket blues. And when you find that, I you begin to play the old I original blues with the four four beat and the 12-bar form."
Excels
When Shines plays the old blues he is prone to use the steel tube on his left hand for the bottleneck styling at which he excels. On this subject, as on others I raised, his attitude was reasonableness personified.
"I play a lot with the slide, and then I play a lot without it. One time I had to rely on it because I was short on fingering without it. I used the bottleneck to make up the rhythm and the singing of the strings."
So far as the make of his present guitar goes I drew blank. I suspect that it is a Japanese model, but all Johnny would say (after laughing at the thought of it) was: "The one I'm now playing is imported."
Cold
As this was Johnny's first British visit, I naturally enquired as to how he was surviving it. He shook his head over the weather which struck him as severe even after some years in the Windy City.
"Believe it or not, I have enjoyed it," he replied mildly, "though the weather has not agreed wit h me. It’s been somewhat damp and we had snow on the road. Everywhere we played it seemed to start snowing. In the end I got to know that when it got to snowing that was where we were going to work.
"But other than that it hasn't been hard for me. No-o-oh. Even when it's been very cold outside it has been warm inside. Because the people are there to listen, and you know that, and it gives you a warm feeling. In fact, it really takes the stinger out of the weather here."
Ireland
Had Johnny heard anything to catch his attention on this side of the water? He said he hadn't had time to hear very much. But he had jammed with Jo-Ann Kelly in Aberystwyth and found the experience impressive. "Yes, that little lady surprised me," he said.
He had also been surprised with Ireland — "more than with anything else over here, because I went to Dublin expecting skyscrapers and everything hut it was lovely country around there."
Rats
He added that he was impressed by the pretty girls and the "lovely rats too, where I was working." Rats? " Yes, I turned around and there was a rat on the floor.
"Nobody made any attempt too kill it and I didn't want to do it. Being a stranger, I might have been killing a sacred object and got myself thrown out. Finally I pointed it out to a man. He stomped it and said: 'That won't give you no more trouble'."
Return
One thing that didn't grip Shines at all tightly was — I hesitate to disclose it for fear of reprisal — the draught Guinness. Of course, he's not a drinking man, never mind an Irish-man. But he is game.
"Yes, I tried a glass or two of the real stuff. I don't know... I didn't really like the taste of it. But you know what they say. When in Ireland do like the Irish do."
In general, though, he takes back happy memories of his stay with us. The Blues Federation men are planning to bring him back in the autumn, and Shines views the prospect with pleasure.
Safe
"The people here, they make you feel real welcome." He sounded as though he meant it. "You know what? I feel safe in Europe. You're not violent here. Yes, this is my kind of place. I'd like too bring my kids up in England."
|
|
|
Post by carolinablues on Jul 5, 2014 10:26:17 GMT -5
I love this site!
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jul 6, 2014 10:03:11 GMT -5
Here's a South Londoner, Mike Rowe, interviewing him four years earlier in Chicago.
Johnny Shines Mike Rowe (Blues Unlimited 37 Oct 1966, pages 3-5)
When we called on Johnny Shines at his home, he had taken the day off work in order to play for us. A very powerfully built man, he works for a construction firm and lives with his second wife. They've only been married a year and live in a flat out on South Woodlawn, one of the better Negro suburbs on the South Side.
Johnny doesn't have a guitar at the moment and we had to hire one for the afternoon. Despite his lack of practice, and the fact that it wasn't the greatest guitar in the world, he played some thrilling music including traditional numbers like "l Cried". He played in four tunings which he described as "Natural", "E Natural", "Crossed Note" and "Spanish".
Johnny Shines was born in Memphis on April 25th, 1915, into a family with some musical tradition. Both his brother and his uncle played guitar while two cousins played "bones" in church! Johnny first started playing in 1932 and first of all learned "Bumble Bee Blues" and "Milk Cow Blues". His main influences were Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell and Charlie Patton. Quickly his style developed and he first attracted attention when Howlin' Wolf was playing a date for Will Weillers. In the interval Johnny picked up Wolf's guitar and played to the acclaim of the audience and Wolf s astonishment! By 1933-34, Johnny had become proficient enough to turn professional and he played around Memphis with other artists of that time. Those he remembers include Ted Owen, Willie Tango, Willie Bee Borum, "Honey Boy" Albert Shaw, Calvin Frazier (a cousin to Johnny, who now lives in Detroit) and, of course, Robert Johnson. Robert he met in 1934 and guessed he was about 22 or 23 at the time, just older than himself. With Robert, he travelled through Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri until 1937, playing together and sometimes opposite each other. If there were two dances in the same area and they couldn't both be hired by the same man Robert would work one dance and Johnny the other. Robert he described as "the greatest and a crowd pleaser in every way, and of the similarity in their styles he said "Yes, we had similar styles. You see we both liked the same artists. That way we were a mixture of Blind Lemon, Lonnie Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell and Charlie Patton!"
Johnny moved to Chicago on September 25th, 1941 and remembers playing first at "Frost s Corner". His first recordings were made for Lester Melrose in 1944 and he remembers cutting six numbers (These would presumably be the unissued Columbia sides, though the date for these is given as 1946 and four sides only are listed). About this time he was leading a trio including the mysterious "Porkchops" and a boy called "Spoon"; they played out of town at Robbins, Illinois. For the first night he was paid only 3 dollars, having been promised 20 to 30 dollars! Not unnaturally he decided to quit. "I told him if that was all he could afford to pay me he obviously needed it more himself!" However, the promoter managed to persuade Johnny to get a five-piece band together with trumpet, piano, bass, guitar and drums for the next week and he booked them for 35 dollars a night. Johnny kept his group and they played at Robbins through 1943 to 1945 when the pianist was killed in a car crash while returning from Wisconsin. This broke up the band and Johnny opted out for a less hectic way of life.
His JOB recordings were made in 1953 and until recently he hadn't recorded with anyone else, but said he had been used as a sideman on dates by Snooky Pryor (with Moody Jones) for JOB, Homesick James and Arbee Stidham. The very few records under Johnny's name can be explained by a disagreement with Al Benson that effectively finished his recording career. Apparently Benson was so influential in Chicago at the time that anyone who fell foul of him found it virtually impossible to get a contract. In spite of this Johnny was still fairly active well into the 'fifties and played through 1956/ 57 with Sonny Boy Williamson. Since then he has become more and more disillusioned with the music business and plays only occasionally for informal functions within his social circle.
In the evenings he has a sideline as a freelance photographer working the clubs where Wolf, Muddy and sometimes B.B. King and Lowell Fulson are playing. Physically very impressive he has a natural dignity plus a serious and intelligent approach which immediately commands one's respect. As he says, he has not quite retired and modestly adds, "I never have given up the idea of being good at the business." With his rediscovery and new recordings for Pete Welding and Sam Charters there has been a certain amount of pressure on him to take up music again as a living but he is fully aware of the remoteness of financial success and no doubt his earlier experiences have engendered in him a great deal of caution. Perhaps he senses that his is a more solo talent, while he himself would prefer to work with a group. However, with his wife and eldest daughter encouraging him one gets the impression that if he ever does turn professional again it will be a well thought out venture and one worthy of all our support. And if he doesn't well, it will be our loss.
|
|
|
Post by musicman on Jul 6, 2014 10:07:59 GMT -5
Alan, did Johnny Shines ever record I Cried?
Here's one of my favorite JS songs.
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jul 6, 2014 10:54:54 GMT -5
I've looked at Wolfgang Lorenz's March 1998 Shines discography, the song title list only gives a song of the title I Cry, I Cry. This song was recorded by Pete Welding for his Testament label in Los Angeles, January 1969. Line up Horton, Luther Allison, Prince Candy and Bill Brown. When it was issued on CD in the late 1990s an alternative take was also included (TCD5015). Not having the LP/CD to listen to this may be a totally different song. I'll leave you to YT search.
|
|
|
Post by blueescorpio2000 on Jul 6, 2014 13:42:31 GMT -5
I've looked at Wolfgang Lorenz's March 1998 Shines discography, the song title list only gives a song of the title I Cry, I Cry. This song was recorded by Pete Welding for his Testament label in Los Angeles, January 1969. Line up Horton, Luther Allison, Prince Candy and Bill Brown. When it was issued on CD in the late 1990s an alternative take was also included (TCD5015). Not having the LP/CD to listen to this may be a totally different song. I'll leave you to YT search. I have the original LP. Here you can listen to: Johnny Shines - 'I cry,I cry' (credited to Johnny Shines) tinyurl.com/ph7p58r
|
|
|
Post by jlhooker on Jul 6, 2014 15:20:54 GMT -5
Johnny Shines' daughter lives in Tuscaloosa Al.She lives in the Holt Community where there is a street named after her Dad.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2014 7:08:47 GMT -5
Seems like many of JS recordings included Horton. Were they close friends?
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jul 7, 2014 10:30:54 GMT -5
Seems like many of JS recordings included Horton. Were they close friends? The first time Horton recorded Shines session was Jan 22, 1953 and consistently until October 1968, which included sessions on which Shines "backed" Horton, Sunnyland Slim, Otis Spann and Koko Taylor. Then from May 1969 Shines, Horton and band globe trotted (Germany, France, Sweden) under the banner of Chicago Blues All Stars until late 1969. After that Shines seems to have "gone solo" for most of the 70s. In 1979/80 he teamed up with Robert Lockwood and toured Europe. Somewhere I have a photo of their appearance at London's 100 Club.
|
|
|
Post by AlanB on Jul 7, 2014 10:49:29 GMT -5
Whilst on the topic of Shines at the 100 Club.
I sat within a foot of Shines when he played London's 100 Club in October 1979. Didn't speak with him but he had a novel way of dealing with a heckler, which went something along these lines:??
Heckler: Johnny Shines you're a sexist ??Shines: Silence?? Heckler: Johnny Shines you're a sexist ??Shines: Texis, Texis, I'm not from Texas.
The audience couldn't stop laughing and heckler wasn't heard from again.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 14, 2014 9:38:31 GMT -5
Love this one from his 1974 sessions with Don Audet on harmonica, Richard Baker on second acoustic guitar, and Bob Derkash on upright bass.
|
|