(3CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Although Johnson has spent much of her adult life in Chicago, the Windy
City is not her hometown; she was born in Franklin, VA, on June 7, 1949,
and raised in Norfolk, VA. Johnson came from a very religious family and
she was only six when she started singing gospel in a church
choir.
Johnson's family didn't think much of either the blues or R&B,
which are considered sinful in some of the stricter, more fundamentalist
Christian churches. Nonetheless, she managed to hear the blues as a
little girl and fell in love with secular black music; despite her
parents' disdain for the blues and R&B, she developed a healthy
appreciation of Brown, James, and Taylor, as well as male bluesmen like
B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton, and the late Z.Z.
Hill.
None of those artists have been blues purists and James, in fact, is
primarily a soul singer who often detours into the blues and listening
to them obviously taught her that the blues and classic soul often go
hand in hand. When Johnson reached adulthood in the late '70s, she was
free to pursue a career in secular music, so she made her presence felt
in Norfolk's blues and R&B circles and went on to become an opening
act for Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Z.Z. Hill, and other well-known
artists who were passing through town.
In the early '80s, she recorded some singles for two regional labels in
Virginia and those recordings caught the attention of a man who was
planning to start a label in Chicago. The aspiring record man expressed
interest in recording Johnson and sent her a plane ticket to Chicago,
but when she arrived in the Windy City she learned he didn't have enough
money to pay for a session.
Nonetheless, she decided to remain in Chicago and became active on the
city's blues circuit, where she has performed both blues and soul. The
people she worked with in Chicago included Little Johnny Christian,
Artie "Blues Boy" White, and keyboardist Eddie Lusk (who took Johnson on
the road with him on international tours).
In the '90s, Johnson made some recordings for the Appaloosa label,
including her 1996 album Looking for Love. Then, in the early 2000s, she
signed with the Chicago-based Delmark, which released Killer Diller in
May 2002, following it up with Blues Attack in 2009.
NEW!
1994-Looking For Love @FLAC
