onurblues: Special Johnny Jones : I Was Raised On The Blues (1998) - In The House (live with Charles Walker, 2000) - Blues Is In The House (2001)

March 10, 2023

Special Johnny Jones : I Was Raised On The Blues (1998) - In The House (live with Charles Walker, 2000) - Blues Is In The House (2001) - Can I Get An Amen? (live, 2007)

→ Get the albums at the usual place… (except “Blues Is In The House”)

Blues Is In The House !

Nashville is world famous as the capital of Country music, not Blues rather associated with Memphis. Still the Grand Ole Opry city also has a blues and R&B scene, and Johnny Jones was an active member of it for nearly fifty years.

Born in 1936 in Edes, Tennessee, John D. Jones Jr. moved to Memphis at age 13, then to Chicago in the early 1950s where he got under the influence of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, and worked regularly with Junior Wells and Freddie King (1)

Jefferson St., Nashville. Look who's on the wall

A decade later he returned south, to Nashville this time, playing the club circuit around Jefferson Street, the black music district. That's where a young Jimi Hendrix freshly discharged from military duty would come to hear him play, study his style and get advice when jamming with the musicians.

In Nashville Jones had the opportunity to play along with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown in the 1960s, Bobby "Blue" Bland in the 1970s, Earl Gaines, Roscoe Shelton and Charles Walker in the late 1990s.

Finally he recorded his first album,“I Was Raised on the Blues", in 1998, a collection of rather rhythmic numbers where his lead guitar tone sounds quite appealing.

Most titles are driven by a rocking and dancing beat by Jeff Davis on bass and Herb Sucher on drums, while Phil Rugh brings the warm sound of his Hammond Organ, and Dennis Taylor of his saxophones. Producer Fred James, who wrote or co-wrote several titles, is also on rhythm guitar and piano. Two famous backing vocalists complete the line-up : Earl Gaines and Mary-Ann Brandon.

Fred James

On this debut work, Jones stays true to himself : mainly a blues club musician whose objective is to give the patrons their money worth of dancing blues. And that's what they get with numbers like “Chip Off The Old Block”, the gutsy cover of Albert King's “Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong”, “Galloping Dominoes”, the great beat of “Herb Stuffing”, “Baptism Of Fire”…

A club player but not devoid of musical creativity : Jones guitar playing mixes excellent technique with a soulful tone and a liking for hot groove. At the same time he delivers a cool vocal style. The man also knows how to slow down the pace when needed with heartfelt songs like “Can I Get An Amen”, “Groove Thing”, “Sneaky Suspicion” or “Mighty Low”.

A fine first album by an appealing bluesman with decades of experience behind him.

Johnny Jones & Charles Walker “In The House” (2000) is a live performance recorded at the renowned Lucerne Blues Festival, in Switzerland, in November 1999. Except the Hammond and the drums that changed hand to be entrusted respectively to Billy Earheart and Andy Arrow, the musicians are the same as on the first album, even Mary-Ann Brandon is on backing vocals on the last three tracks.

Charles Walker

The main difference are the lead vocals now performed by Nashville veteran soul/blues singer Charles “Wigg” Walker. Apparently both musicians, who knew each other well, form a good complementary pair (personally, I'm not sure Walker brings anything extra compared to Jones vocals, but that's only my opinion).

Jones can fully concentrate on his guitar playing, delivering the same appealing soulful tone as on the previous album. Also the Hammond organ is much more present than on “I Was Raised on the Blues”.

Probably due to Walker's influence, the numbers aren't as muscular as on the first album and the show features more mid-tempo to slow songs, among which “Slave To Love” (nothing to do with the similar title by Bryan Ferry). One finds “Can I Get An Amen” again, in a fine live version. There's also some more rocking numbers : the cover of Muddy Waters' “Gypsy Woman”, and hot versions of "99,000 Watts Of Soul Power” and “Nothing A Young Girl Can Do”.

Walker is certainly a good showman, but in my opinion, even if Jones can't be reproached anything, this live isn't reaching the same level as the 2007 “Can I Get An Amen”.

Jones third opus ”Blues Is In The House” (2001) is as enjoying as the first one. The line-up is not different from the previous albums. Jones is back on vocals, Fred James still produces and keeps the rhythm guitar, Billy Earheart is on keyboards and Jeff Davis on bass. Dennis Taylor is back on saxophone. Only one new face : Bryan Owings on drums. Along Mary-Ann Brandon, Charles Walker is on backing vocals this time, except on the title track “The Blues Is In The House” where he share the lead singing with Jones.

It's a muscular blues album and Jones sounds in top form. Just listen to “Your Stuff Is Rough” for example and you'll know what I mean. His guitar is always quite exciting, with little extra adornments here and there, like the Leslie chamber effect on the solid rocking instrumental “Really”.

Appealing horn riffs give a R'n'B flavor to titles like the opening “A Fool Never Learns”, the excellent and humorous “Love Recession”, “A Rock and a Hard Case”, “The Blues Is In The House”.

On some other tracks, the riffs comes from the organ and/or the piano (“Girlfriend Blues”, “I Could Be Dangerous”, “Good Idea at the Time”),

My feet didn't get a rest from stomping the floor at these pounding blues tracks by a bluesman really worth discovering.

"Can I Get An Amen?", released in 2007, is a live performance caught on tape in 1998 in Bern, Switzerland. Except for two songs already featured on the live “In The House”, played here in different but very close versions, it is more or less a live version of the first album with the extra energy of a live performance.

Once again the musicians are the same : James (rhythm guitar, background vocals), Jeff Davis (bass, background vocals), Andy Arrow (drums), Billy Earheart (organ) and Charles Walker on vocals on the closing track “Ain't Nothing A Young Girl Can Do”.

Same energetic blues with the live atmosphere as a bonus : Jones shouting his banters and his motto “Blues is in the house!” as a 62 years old young man. Quite an appealing live recording from a bluesman not very familiar to non-specialists. Unfortunately, this fourth opus was his last one : Jones died two years after its release, in October 2009 in Nashville… ■

(1) Johnny Jones is not to be confused with Chicago blues pianist “Little” Johnny Jones.