Lonnie Johnson - A Life in Music Selected Sides 1925-1953

Tracklist

CD1- 1925-1928

1 Won't Don't Blues
2 Mr Johnson's Blues
3 Falling Rain Blues
4 No Good Blues
5 Newport Blues
6 Love Story Blues
7 Nile Of Genago
8 To Do This You Gotta Know How
9 South Bound Water
10 I Done Told You
11 Steppin' On The Blues
12 Four Hands Are Better Than Two
13 I Love You Mary Lou
14 Woke Up With The Blues In My Fingers
15 Stay Out Of Walnut Street Alley
16 St. Louis Cyclone Blues
17 6/88 Glide
18 Life Saver Blues
19 Untitled Instrumental
20 I'm Not Rough
21 Hotter Than That
22 Savoy Blues
23 Playing With The Strings
24 Stompin' Em Along Slow
25 Awat Down In The Alley Blues

CD2- 1928-1932

1 The Mooche
2 Move Over
3 Hot And Bothered
4 Careless Love
5 Paducah
6 Star Dust
7 Have To Change Key To Play These Blues
8 Jet Black Blues
9 Blue Blood Blues
10 Sitting On Top Of The World
11 Kansas City Man Blues
12 A Handful Of Riffs
13 She's Makin' Whoopee In Hell Tonight
14 Another Woman Booked Out And Bound To Go
15 Wipe It Off
16 The Dirty Dozen
17 Deep Sea Blues
18 Got The Blues For Murder Only
19 Just A Roamin' Man
20 Jelly Killed Old Sam
21 The Faults Of All Women And Men
22 The Best Jockey In Town
23 Uncle Ned Don't Lose Your Head
24 I'm Nuts About That Gal
25 Racketeers Blues

CD3- 1937-1947

1 Man Killing Broad
2 Hard Times Ain't Gone No Where
3 Got The Blues For The West End
4 Why Women Go Wrong
5 Jersey Belle Blues
6 Four-O-Three Blues
7 Crowing Rooster Blues
8 Lazy Woman Blues
9 Chicago Blues
10 From 22 to 44
11 Rambler's Blues
12 Fly Right, Baby
13 He's A Jelly-Roll Baker
14 Watch Shorty
15 Keep What You Got
16 Drifting Along Blues
17 How Could You Be So Mean
18 Rocks In My Bed
19 Love Is The Answer
20 Blues For Everybody
21 Blues In My Soul
22 Your Last Time Out
23 Blues For Lonnie
24 What A Woman
25 Tomorrow Night

CD4- 1947-1953

1 Friendless Blues
2 Falling Rain Blues
3 It's Too Late To Cry
4 Playing Around
5 My My Baby
6 Trouble Ain't Nothing But The Blues
7 Blues Stay Away From Me
8 Nothing But Trouble
9 Old Fashioned Love
10 What Do You Want That I've Got, Pretty Baby
11 Why Should I Cry
12 It Was All In Vain
13 You Only Want Me When You're Lonely
14 Me And My Crazy Self
15 Seven Long Days
16 I'm Guilty
17 Just Another Day
18 You Can't Buy Love
19 Can't Sleep Any More
20 Don't Make Me Cry, Baby
21 My Woman Is Gone
22 Will You Remember
23 Stick With It, Baby
24 I Found A Dream
25 It's Been So Long


Lonnie Johnson was best-known for his tonally beautiful guitar playing, but he was also a fine singer and songwriter, and pretty adept on violin, piano, banjo, mandolin, harmonium, and bass, as well. Equally at home in the blues or the jazz world (he worked with artists as raw as Texas Alexander and as polished as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington), and even later, the R&B world, Johnson's life as a professional musician began in the mid-'20s and stretched all the way into the '60s, when his career was given an autumnal boost during the folk/blues revival. This four-disc, 100- track box from JSP Records moves chronologically through Johnson's peak years with commercial labels, beginning with tracks like 1925’s “Falling Rain Blues,” which was cut for OKeh (with Johnson singing and playing violin), through Johnson’s gorgeous solo version of W.C. Handy's "Careless Love," also cut for OKeh and released in 1928. The wry and wise “Hard Times Ain’t Gone No Where” is included from his stay at Decca Records. Johnson signed to Bluebird Records a year later in 1938 and began playing an amplified guitar. Always in demand on the instrument, Johnson was also a graceful and elegant singer, and his ability to bring an emotional sincerity to blues ballads gave him a hit in 1948 with “Tomorrow Night” when he was signed to King Records. Johnson began using jazzy, horn-based R&B combos toward the end of his stay at King and with his run at Rama Records that followed, and sides like “I’m Guilty,” included on disc four here, show just how versatile this amazing musician could be. There are several single-disc releases of Lonnie Johnson's work on the market and casual listeners may well want to start with one of those, since there is a lot of repetition here (none of the musicians from the '20s and '30s could have anticipated having multi-disc box sets), but as an extensive overview of Johnson's peak commercial years, the four-disc A Life in Music is a fascinating listen.~ Steve Leggett