BACKSTAGE PASS:
Go behind the scenes with staff writer Scott Dirks as he shares inside stories and additional details left on the cutting room floor regarding Delta Groove artists and releases. This months' article focuses on the accomplishments and achievements of Delta Groove and our artists in 2006!

Of all the successes enjoyed by Delta Groove in 2006, one of the most surprising and gratifying was with John Long’s debut CD “Lost & Found”.  Long may well qualify for the longest ‘overnight sensation’ on record – after 45+ years of making music, he took the blues world by storm in 2006, earning unanimous praise from fans and critics alike for his first full-length official release.  Long’s performance schedule was curtailed somewhat late in the year when he took time off to care for his long-time friend and mentor Homesick James Williamson, and he’s kept a low profile since Williamson’s passing in early December.  But among the highlights for Long in the past year was his triumphant return to Chicago, where he spent several years on the blues scene in the early 1970s, to play the prestigious Chicago Blues Festival in June. 

We recently checked in with Long at his home, and asked him if he had any comments for his many new fans; here’s what he had to say:

“Well, just tell the people that I look forward to seeing them soon.  North, south, east, west, if they want me, I’ll be there.  I’ll be at the Sundance Festival later this month, and then at the Santa Barbara Blues Festival [on January 27th] (Long will also be performing at Cozy’s in Sherman Oaks, CA on January 26th).  I’m looking forward to getting out there. Some folks were asking when I’m going to be performing over in Europe.  Hopefully soon.  I did a radio interview in Salina, Kansas that went out there on the satellite, and folks from all over heard it.  They got some e-mails about it, asking where I was going to be.   I have a good friend in Germany named Willy Solomon, a really good guitar player, and I hope to go over there and play with him sometime.  I’d sure like to play over there, so if they want me, I’ll go.

A lot of the people who like what the other Delta Groove artists like The Mannish Boys are doing also seem to like me, and I really appreciate that.

You know, Homesick James just passed.  A lot of the greats are leaving us…Robert Junior, Henry Townsend, Snooky Pryor.  Homesick was a wonderful person and an excellent musician.  A master guitarist, he also had played in jazz and country and lot of different things, like a lot of the older guys did.  He was a warm human being who had a lot compassion for his fellow man, that’s the way I’ll remember him.  He would help his fellow man. A great man.”

John Long may be a man of few words, but plenty of good words are being written about him.  Here’s a small sampling of what some of the reviewers have had to say about his debut CD “Lost & Found”:

“10 out of 10!!!  Lost and Found was a classic from the very second the producer shouted 'It's a wrap John'. …When John Long plays, he cuts straight to the quick…it's a chilling and memorable moment…As a singer he is unyielding, as a guitarist he is dynamic without being in the slightest theatrical. On the evidence of Lost and Found it would be quite easy to believe that Robert Johnson wasn't the only one to swap his soul at the crossroads…Without doubt "Lost and Found" is the best blues album I've heard in years.
Michael Mee - Americana-UK.com

John Long’s “Lost & Found” is sizzling old-school blues…the emotive Long had no shortage of material when it came to choosing the dozen tracks that make up this blues masterpiece…“Lost & Found” is a modern acoustic, country-blues record that feels as if it was made by Elmore James or other classic Chicago blues singers from a bygone era; it could easily sit beside the best of the greats of their day….Let’s hope these “lost and found” gems are just the first volume of many more CDs to come from an artist that
lives and breathes the blues.
David McPherson - GOLDMINE

Long has a voice that is never forced and reeks of authenticity...There are too many highlights scattered throughout to mention; just pick a track…A perfect combination of the fresh and familiar. The small, West Coast indie Delta Groove has a sure winner on its hands with John Long.
Larry Hollis - Cadence Magazine

Long is a tough singer. Years of low-key work have honed an arresting talent…
MOJO Magazine

[Long] exhibit[s] plenty of that vital devil-may-care attitude as well as the octave-jumping vocal and instrumental virtuosity of avowed boyhood idols such as Sonny Boy Williamson and Tommy Johnson…Fans of John Hammond or Alvin Youngblood Hart will find this ambitious project right up their alley.
Sing Out Magazine

Considering the fact that Lost & Found is the first full length recording John Long has ever done, I find myself wondering what other gems still lay within the depths of his experiences…Acoustic country blues like this just doesn’t happen anymore…it’s a refreshing breathe of air to discover a “new” old bluesman like John Long.
Blues Bytes

A stone cold, killer guitar man…Long has soaked up the blues so long from his St. Louis roots through his Chicago sojourn that he is the blues. A high octane guitar man that keeps the tradition alive while keeping it current…Check it out, it's a contemporary blues must hear.
Midwest Record Recap Magazine

The music is wet with a passion that seems dredged from the Mississippi Delta, but the overall effect, eerie and supernatural, bears no distinct sense of time or place…Lost and Found…boasts a range of compositions that highlight Long’s eccentric originality…
Blues Revue - David Freeland

5 out of 5…Long's guitar attack is both stinging and smooth, rhythmic and chunkily syncopated, a blend of contradictions…Long's work is all original and yet manages to truly capture the soul and spirit behind the blues…
Edmonton Sun

Long has a flair for direct storytelling as well as understated comic lyrics…John Long and this CD ought to be nominees for a number of year-end awards, especially best debut.
Living Blues

Long has to be one of the finest country blues players around. He has recorded a mature set of country blues, firmly in the tradition, without falling into the trap of merely aping the likes of Robert Johnson, Skip James or Tampa Red... an excellent debut CD from a musician who really should have been recording a couple of decades ago, considering some of the so called “bluesmen” who are garnering huge praise elsewhere…It’s been a while coming but definitely worth the wait.
Blues & Rhythm

…and to top off an amazing year, John Long’s “Lost & Found” was nominated by the Blues Foundation for a Blues Award (the blues equivalent of a Grammy) for “Acoustic Album Of The Year”, and is considered by some to be the front-runner among a field of veteran fellow nominees.  The awards ceremony is Thursday May 10, 2007 in Memphis, and whether John Long leaves with an award or not, it has been an fantastic year for him that has been a long time coming!

Written by Scott Dirks