This Week In The Blues: Feb 02 - Feb 08, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of February 02 - February 08, 2025.

Some of the highlights include “Johnny Guitar” Watson, rhythm-and-blues pianist and singer Floyd Dixon, and blues and jazz guitar pioneer Lonnie Johnson .

We just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:
https://bigtrainblues.com
https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Photo credits (if known) and past episodes are posted on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@BigTrainBlues

Here are links to a few of the artists or songs we've referenced in this week's episode:

Best Live solos of Johnny "Guitar" Watson - https://youtu.be/Fkoq4Y8WymY?si=i5rau3lCSHoiAyrg

Lonnie Johnson - "Another Night to Cry" - https://youtu.be/Uu2Smmcuu2Q?si=7WK1-dMlIyNJFKIw

Join me every weekday from 12:15pm-12:45pm CT to watch a live stream on Facebook of the longest running blues radio show program. https://www.facebook.com/DeltaCulturalCenter

We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!

ARE YOU A FAN OF BLUES HISTORY? US TOO!

If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:

https://bigtrainblues.com

https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Transcript

This Week In The Blues: Feb 02 – Feb 08 2025

Mississippi Sheiks member Walter Vinson was born February 2, 1901, in Bolton, Mississippi, and grew up performing music locally. He rarely performed on his own but was regularly part of a duet, trio or group. As a member of the Sheiks, he worked with Bo Chatmon and his brothers, and co-wrote the blues standard "Sitting on Top of the World" which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. Vinson claimed to have composed "Sitting on Top of the World" one morning, after playing at a white’s only dance in Greenwood, Mississippi.

“Johnny Guitar” Watson was born February 3, 1935.  This flamboyant showman and electric guitarist had a recording career spanning forty years, and encompassed rhythm and blues, funk and soul music. Watson’s roots resided within the fertile blues scene of Houston, Texas. As a teenager, he played with fellow Texas future greats Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland.

Texas blues guitarist and singer Jesse "Babyface" Thomas was born February 3, 1911. Known at different times as "Baby Face" or "Mule", and occasionally billed as "The Blues Troubadour", his career performing blues music extended 6 decades. Thomas was born in Logansport, Louisiana, and is best known for the song "Blue Goose Blues", which he recorded for Victor in 1929. He recorded and performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and even appeared at the Long Beach Blues Festival in 1994.

Chicago blues guitarist Jody Williams was born February 3, 1935. His singular guitar playing, marked by flamboyant string-bending, imaginative chord voicings and distinctive tone, was influential in the Chicago blues scene of the 1950s. Williams was one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Chicago, but he was little known outside the music industry, since his name rarely appeared on discs. His stinging lead guitar work appeared on tracks by Billy Boy Arnold, Bo Diddley, and Otis Spann. In 2013, Williams was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame.

One of the most influential recordings of early Mississippi blues was recorded February 3, 1928 by Tommy Johnson in Memphis. "Big Road Blues" was a song many bluesmen learned either from the record or from seeing Crystal Springs blues legend Tommy Johnson in person.  'I ain't goin' down that big road by myself' became a classic blues line, sometimes changed to 'dark road' or even 'road of love' by other singers. The recording features Tommy Johnson on vocal and guitar and Charlie McCoy on a second guitar. The song is also 1987 Blues Hall of Fame Inductee.

Chicago blues bass guitarist Robert "Big Mojo" Elem born February 5, 1928. Although he recorded only one studio album in his long career, Elem was a part of the Chicago blues scene for over forty years. During that time, he variously backed Arthur "Big Boy" Spires, Lester Davenport, Freddie King, Magic Sam, Junior Wells, Shakey Jake Harris, Jimmy Dawkins, Luther Allison, and Otis Rush just to name a few.

Here’s another “Mississippi Ghost Story”, although this one is from Chicago. Jerome Green was a percussionist known for playing maracas helping shape that Bo Diddley in the 1950s and early 1960s. Green grew up in Chicago, and was a neighbor of Ellas McDaniel, later known as Bo Diddley. Needing to add percussion to boost his sound, but not wanting to have to carry a drum kit between venues, he recruited Green to play maracas that he made out of toilet floats filled with black-eyed peas.

Rhythm-and-blues pianist and singer Floyd Dixon was born February 8, 1929. He’s considered to be one of the pioneers of the West Coast blues sound and a major influence and mentor to Ray Charles, B. B. King, and Robert Cray. Dixon’s expansive career had him taking on a variety of styles—boogie-woogie, swing, mournful blues, R&B, and gospel. but his strongest suit was jump blues. 

blues and jazz guitar pioneer Lonnie Johnson was born February 8, 1899. Johnson's early guitar recordings are the first to display a single-note soloing style with string bending and vibrato. Johnson’s influence is obvious in the playing of Django Reinhardt, T-Bone Walker and virtually all electric blues guitarists. In March 1969 he was hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk in Toronto and never fully recovered. 11 months later, with the help of a cane he returned to the stage for one final performance to sing a couple songs with Buddy Guy.

Well blues fans, we just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to follow our social media pages or visit our website at Big Train Blues.com. We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!