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JOHN
LONG "LOST & FOUND"
Liner Notes by
Al
Blake & Scott Dirks |
John
Long is a national treasure.
More than 20 years ago Muddy Waters is
quoted saying “John Long is the
best young country blues artist playing
today.”
Last year upon hearing John’s music
for the first time, Los Angeles based
guitarist Zac Zunis remarked, “If
you wanted to make an argument for reincarnation,
John Long is it.”
No one has come along in the last 20 years
or so who can fill John’s shoes.
He is still, hands down, the best post-modern
old school bluesman working today. He
is the complete package. A master of the
art.
So why has he fallen through the proverbial
cracks? Well, what about Skip James, and
Robert Johnson, and what about Willie
Walker (a blind singer and guitarist from
the Carolinas who Reverend Gary Davis
said was the best he’d ever heard,
bar none; listening to Walker’s
only two brilliant recordings, it’s
easy to see why the Reverend Davis said
what he did). All these masters fell through
the cracks. It has happened all too often,
for blues artists especially.
How many times have I heard the know-it-alls,
the critics, the so-called progressive
blues musicians say it can’t be
done like it was? Enter John Long, in
my rarely humble opinion, the end all,
be all of the post modern old school country
blues musicians. God bless Johnny Long.
It can be done, and oh-so-naturally with
total authority and originality. Long
live the blues.
- Al Blake
In a world where everyone adopts a gimmick,
an angle, a pose in order to get over, John
Long is an anachronism. He is a 100% pure
bluesman for life. Born, raised and bred
on the blues. It’s not a ‘career
choice’ for Long, not just a type
of music he plays, or happened to be influenced
by. He’s not a blues player, he’s
a Bluesman, with a capital B.
Born in St. Louis ,Missouri in 1950, he
was absorbing music live, on the radio,
and from his mom’s scratchy jazz &
R&B 78s while still in knee pants. By
the late 1950s John was glued to the radio,
listening to the black music stations, absorbing
the sounds of Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters,
Lightnin ’ Hopkins, Junior Parker,
and all the rest of the R&B and blues
of the day, and working on recreating those
sounds with his guitar. His older brother
Claude – also a talented singer and
guitarist - was an influence as well.
In the early 1960s John and Claude formed
The Mystics, specializing in the popular
tunes they heard on the radio at the time
- rock ‘n roll and R&B, along
with occasional originals written by Claude.
But both brothers felt the strong pull of
the blues; John explains this as a reaction
to growing up in a prejudiced, segregated
society, and finding comfort in music that
addressed the pain and confusion brought
about by the world around him. The blues
was a way of feeling better, and finding
a hopeful common ground.
Like many before him, Long began digging
deeper into the roots of the music, going
back through Muddy, Wolf, and Elmore, to
Tampa Red, Peetie Wheatstraw , Leroy Carr
& Scrapper Blackwell, and others. Veteran
St. Louis-based bluesman Big Joe Williams
gave John first-hand pointers, and harp
player Doc Terry was also a guide through
the depth and breadth of the blues. As Long
dug deeper into the pre-war, acoustic blues
era, he began to find a home stylistically.
He also began writing his own original music,
inspired by his brother, whom he still credits
as his biggest influence.
Of course, then as now, opportunities for
a solo acoustic bluesman were scarce, so
Long continued to work on his art while
toiling at a day job, and picking up gigs
when he could. The early 1970s found him
in Chicago , where he met another important
inspiration: veteran bluesman Homesick James
Williamson. Williamson had been playing
blues guitar since the pre-war era (and
as of this writing, still is), and was kin
to, and bandmate of, blues great Elmore
James. Homesick was a surrogate father to
Long, showing him the ropes in Chicago ,
and tutoring him in the subtleties of the
blues.
So where has John Long been for the last
30+ years? Quietly honing his craft, perfecting
his art, and finding his voice. His complete
recorded works up until now consist of a
few obscure appearances on other people’s
sessions, a small handful of home-made demo
recordings, a cut on a little-known compilation,
and that’s about it. After a sabbatical
from working live gigs, he’s only
recently begun throwing his hat back into
that ring.
One of John Long’s demos found its
way in the hands of bluesman Al Blake (former
frontman with The Hollywood Fats Band, and
current Delta Groove artist as leader of
The Hollywood Blue Flames), who was stunned
by the intensity and purity of Long’s
blues. He passed the demo along to Delta
Groove head Randy Chortkoff, and Long 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 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, 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.
- Scott Dirks |
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