JOHN LONG "LOST & FOUND" Source: Blues Critic Date: 01/2006 Writer: Dylann

He has a name nearly as generic as "John Doe". If you type a search for "John Long" on the Internet you'll get a godzillion names. Likely you don't know this countrified T-Bone blueser named John Long. But that's going to change because this is one of the finest debut albums to "suddenly" appear in quite some time. Then again Long had a 40 year backlog of original material to pull from.Although "Lost & Found" is his first LP Long's performing career dates back to the 60s as a solo, acoustic performer and in tandom with brother and mentor Claude. Later in the 70s he was gigging in Chicago where he befriended Elmore James associate Homesick James Williamsons but other than some obscure session work his recording cache is empty. Once you hear "Lost & Found" you'll think Delta Groove Productions stumbled across some cousin of T-Bone Walker who'd been in seclusion in some backwoods shack. This is 100% pure country blues that's instantly classic but this record was recorded in a single day in August 2005. Just Long singin', pickin' and blowin' harp (with Fred Kaplin on piano for three tracks). I was blown away by the Delta blues opener "Hokum Town". Long's voice is pinched and mournful like a T-Bone or wry ala Jerry "Boogie" McCain and his songwriting sharp. Sample line: "With you and your father I just can't win/You hate people 'cuz the color of their skin/I'm packin' up/Leaving on this bus outside...Well, you ain't so white as snow mama/I'mma tell you the truth/Can tell you're black-hearted the way you do the things you do". One of 12 tracks about mean hearted women, hell cats, ground sloths, boogie woogie, Greyhounds and low-down luck. The only thing missin' is a blackcat bone and a jelly roll. I picture Long performing hundreds of times in nowhere places before ending up in a Burbank, California studio to lay down a life's work of blues experience. So, sure, maybe he could have a flashier name like Johnny "T-Bird" Long or John "Lightnin" Long or...but he's just plain ole' "John Long" and these blues are plain ole' good. John, where you been so long?