In a world where everyone adopts a
gimmick, an angle, a pose in order
to get over, John Long is a living
anachronism. He is a 100% pure, dyed-in-the-wool,
no-BS bluesman for life. He was born,
raised and bred on the blues. It’s
not a ‘career choice’
for Long, not just a type of music
he plays, or something he happened
to be influenced by at some point.
He’s not a blues player, he’s
a Bluesman, with a capital B.
His complete recorded works up until now
consist of a few deeply obscure backing
appearances on other people’s sessions,
a cut on a sampler released by the host
of an NPR radio program, and a small handful
of home-made demo recordings - one of which
found its way into the hands of Delta Groove
head Randy Chortkoff, who was blown away
by the intensity and purity of Long’s
music. John was quickly booked into a studio
to record his first CD. With a 40 year backlog
of original material from which to draw,
the results are stunning.
Long has the uncanny ability to create and
perform original material that sounds as
if it came from a long-lost cache of vintage
recordings by one of the classic bluesmen
– it’s music completely unique
and new, while at the same time hauntingly
familiar. Long’s songs contain all
the darkness and light, the humor and the
pathos, and the fully realized musicality
of the very best blues from the heyday of
the genre. It’s a heyday that’s
long gone, but in Long’s hands –
in his world – it’s no gimmick,
no pale imitation. This is the music that
John Long has lived his whole life to create.
