Who Is the Guitar Player in Oh Brother Where Art Thou

American Delta blues musician (1896–1956)

Tommy Johnson
The simply known verified photograph of Tommy Johnson
Background information
Born	January 1896 Terry, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	November 1, 1956(1956-11-01) (aged lx) Crystal Springs, Mississippi
Genres	Delta blues
Occupation(due south)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years agile	1914–1956
Labels	Victor, Paramount
Associated acts	Papa Charlie McCoy, Ishman Bracey

Musical artist

Tommy Johnson (January 1896 – Nov i, 1956)^[1] was an American Delta blues musician who recorded in the late 1920s and was known for his eerie falsetto vocalization and intricate guitar playing.^[2] He was unrelated to the blues musician Robert Johnson.

Early on life [edit]

Johnson was born nigh Terry, Mississippi, and in about 1910 moved to Crystal Springs, where he lived for almost of his life.^[3] He learned to play the guitar and, by 1914, was supplementing his income by playing at local parties with his brothers Major and LeDell. In 1916 Johnson married and moved to Webb Jennings' plantation almost Drew, Mississippi, close to the Dockery Plantation.^[iv] There he met other musicians, including Charlie Patton and Willie Brown.^[5]

Career [edit]

Past 1920, Johnson was an afoot musician based in Crystal Springs but traveling widely around the South, sometimes accompanied by Papa Charlie McCoy.^[vi] In 1928, he made his first recordings, with McCoy, for Victor Records,^[three] including "Canned Oestrus Blues", in which he sang of drinking methanol from the cooking fuel Sterno.^[3] The song features the refrain "canned heat, mama, sure, Lord, killing me." The blues grouping Canned Heat took their name from this song.^[3] Johnson'south "Big Route Blues" inspired Canned Rut's song "On the Road Again". A significantly unlike version of the song appears as "Canned Heat" on the album Big Road Dejection by K. C. Douglas.

Johnson recorded two further sessions, for Victor in August 1928 and for Paramount Records in December 1929. He did not record again, mistakenly believing that he had signed abroad his correct to record. Some suggest he had been intentionally given this misimpression by people at Paramount Records. This resulted in a legal settlement with the Mississippi Sheiks, who had used the tune of Johnson's "Big Road Blues" in their successful "Terminate and Listen". Johnson was political party to the copyright settlement but was too drunk at the time to empathise what he had signed.^[7]

Johnson's recordings established him equally the premier Delta blues singer of his day, with a powerful vocalisation that could go from a growl to a falsetto.^[6] He was an achieved guitarist. He as well performed tricks with his guitar, playing information technology between his legs and behind his head and throwing it in the air while playing.^[three]

His fashion influenced later blues singers, such as Robert Nighthawk and Howlin' Wolf (whose vocal "I Asked for Water [She Brought Me Gasoline]" was based on Johnson's "Cool Drink of Water Blues"),^[3] and the country vocalist Hank Williams.^[5] Johnson was a talented composer, blending fragments of folk poesy and personalized lyrics into set guitar accompaniments to arts and crafts hitting dejection compositions such every bit "Maggie Campbell".^[eight]

To enhance his fame, Johnson cultivated a sinister persona. According to his blood brother LeDell, he claimed to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for his mastery of the guitar.^{[5] [9]} This story was later likewise associated with Robert Johnson, to whom Tommy Johnson was unrelated.^[10]

Johnson remained a popular performer in the Jackson surface area through the 1930s and 1940s, sometimes performing with Ishman Bracey.^[3] He influenced other performers, partly because he was willing to teach his style and his repertoire. His influence on local traditions is described by David Evans in the books Tommy Johnson (1971) and Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (1982).^[eleven]

Decease [edit]

Johnson died of a heart set on after playing at a local party in 1956.^[3] He is buried in the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery, outside Crystal Springs, Mississippi.^[3] In April, 2000, Johnson family unit members gave permission for a headstone to be placed on Johnson's grave organized through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, a Mississippi nonprofit corporation agile in historic African American cemetery preservation since 1989. Underwriting for the memorial was obtained through the support of dejection musician Bonnie Raitt. The large granite memorial engraved with Johnson's portrait and including several of Johnson'south all-time-known songs, added at the family's request, was unveiled in October, 2001 in Crystal Springs, but was not placed on Johnson'south bodily grave for another 10 years all the same, considering of a dispute betwixt Johnson'southward family (led by his niece, Vera Johnson Collins), the owners of farm belongings encircling the cemetery, and the Copiah County Board of Supervisors over a deteriorated route that led to the burial site. The dispute was resolved in October 2012 thanks in big office to enquiry work washed by University of Mississippi researcher T.D. Moore. It was finally announced that the headstone would exist erected on Oct 26 of that twelvemonth.^[12] The headstone had been on public display in the Crystal Springs Public Library since being unveiled on October xx, 2001. On the night of Saturday, February two, 2013, the headstone fell and was damaged. Information technology is a matter of dispute whether it savage because it was inadequately secured or because it was pushed over or deliberately smashed.^{[xiii] [14]}

The Tommy Johnson Blues Festival is held annually in Crystal Springs on the third weekend in Oct. The inaugural festival was held in Jackson and Crystal Springs in 2006.^[15]

In fiction [edit]

In the motion picture O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), a character named Tommy Johnson, played by Chris Thomas King, describes selling his soul to the devil to play guitar. The Tommy Johnson character in the pic plays a number of songs originally recorded by the blues musician Skip James and accompanies the Soggy Lesser Boys, a band consisting of the film's three chief protagonists plus Johnson, on "Man of Constant Sorrow".

The story of Johnson'southward selling his soul to the devil was first told past his brother, LaDell Johnson, and reported past David Evans in his 1971 biography of Johnson.^[9] This fable was subsequently attributed to the blues musician Robert Johnson.^[x]

Discography [edit]

Victor Records, 1928, Memphis, Tennessee

• "Cool Drink of H2o Blues"
• "Big Road Blues"
• "Cheerio-Bye Blues"
• "Maggie Campbell Dejection"
• "Canned Heat Dejection"
• "Lonesome Dwelling Dejection" (accept ane)
• "Lonesome Home Blues" (take 2)
• "Louisiana Blues" (unissued test)
• "Large Fat Mama Blues"

Paramount Records, 1929, Grafton, Wisconsin

• "I Wonder to Myself"
• "Slidin' Delta"
• "Lonesome Dwelling Blues"
• Untitled song, have i ("Forenoon Prayer Blues")
• Untitled song, accept two ("Boogaloosa Woman")
• "Black Mare Blues" (take 1)
• "Black Mare Dejection" (accept 2)
• "Ridin' Horse"
• "Alcohol and Jake Dejection"
• "I Want Someone to Love Me"
• "Button Up Shoes" (unissued test)

References [edit]

1. ^ Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. p. 215. ISBN978-0313344237.
2. ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. pp. 127–128. ISBN1-85868-255-10.
3. ^ ^{a b c d eastward f k h i} Koda, Cub. "Tommy Johnson: Biography". AllMusic . Retrieved November 23, 2009.
4. ^ Robert Palmer (1981). Deep Dejection. Penguin Books. pp. lx–61. ISBN978-0-14-006223-six.
5. ^ ^{a b c} "Tommy Johnson - Delta Schoolhouse". Archived July 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
6. ^ ^{a b} Giles Oakley (1997). The Devil's Music. Da Capo Press. pp. 141/two. ISBN978-0-306-80743-5.
7. ^ Evans, David (1971). Tommy Johnson. Studio Vista, p. 68. ISBN 978-0289701515,
8. ^ Barlow, William (1989). "Looking Up at Down": The Emergence of Blues Civilisation. Temple University Press, p. 42. ISBN 0-87722-583-4.
9. ^ ^{a b} Evans, David (1971). Tommy Johnson. Studio Vista, p. 22. ISBN 978-0289701515.
10. ^ ^{a b} Wald, Elijah (January 6, 2004). Escaping the Delta : Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. pp. 265–276. ISBN0-06-052423-5.
11. ^ Evans, David (1982). Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Dejection. Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80300-3.
12. ^ "Miss. Bluesman Getting Long Overdue Grave Marker". Associated Printing. Oct 25, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2012.
13. ^ "Tommy Johnson". MountZionMemorialFund.org. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
14. ^ "Tommy Johnson Headstone Desecrated". Pomeroy Blues and Jazz Society. Pomeroyblues.org. February iii, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
15. ^ "Kickoff Annual Tommy Johnson Celebration" (PDF). Tommy Johnson Blues Foundation. 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2011.

External links [edit]

• Tommy Johnson Blues Foundation site
• Illustrated Tommy Johnson discography
• Site for "Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Dejection Legend Robert Johnson" with links and material related to Tommy Johnson
• Canned Oestrus Dejection Lyrics
• MP3 Sound file of "Canned Heat Dejection" on The Net Archive
• Tommy Johnson on Paramount Records
• Tommy Johnson at AllMusic
• Works by or nearly Tommy Johnson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Johnson_(musician)#:~:text=Springs%20in%202006.-,In%20fiction,the%20devil%20to%20play%20guitar.

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