At 7:40 PM -0600 on 1/29/99, Kelly Kessler wrote:
>I saw some of that and what knocked me out flat was Johnnie Johnson's spare
>and oh-so-tasty foil to Phoebe Snow. Phoebe left me pretty cold. Who can
>tell me more about Johnnie Johnson?
His first Elektra album is worth owning -- look for the same map motif
on the cover that Jimmie Dale Gilmore and others in that series had. I
caught him twice in the months after that came out. The first time was
amazing; he seemed very humbled and flattered that anyone at all had
come out to see him, let alone a sold-out house. The second time, not
long after, he had hooked up with a few guys from NRBQ, and he and
Spampinato engaged in this absurd scripted dialogue that couldn't
pretend, yet tried, that it was spontaneously wandering through
Johnson's history. It was as awful as it sounded, and Johnson's piano
work was just as scripted, with none of the verve or charm of his first
show. I'd go see him again, but he's on double-secret probation.
Anyway, the other albums I have of his have all come out since then,
and they've all been less interesting. (I really wanted to like the one
with the Kentucky Headhunters.) Go for the American Explorer-series
first release.
Bob
