AVID Roots presents the latest release in our Four Classic Albums series with a re-mastered 2CD second release from Lonnie Johnson & Victoria Spivey, complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details;
"Blues"; "Lonesome Road"; "Victoria Spivey with Lonnie Johnson: Woman Blues" and "Another Night to Cry" plus nine bonus singles.
Born into a large musical family in New Orleans, Lonnie Johnson was always much more than just the bluesman that he became known as during his long and intermittent career. He began learning to play music from a very young age tackling and mastering the piano, guitar, violin and mandolin and quickly finding his place in the family musical unit. By his early teens Lonnie was primarily playing guitar and violin in his father's band and by 1917 he joined a revue that toured England! On his return in 1919 he discovered that tragedy had struck his family. All but one brother, James, had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic of that year. With James alongside him, Lonnie later settled in St. Louis in 1921 where he began performing as a duo with his brother. During these early years he was probably playing as much jazz as blues but after winning a blues competition in 1925 he was signed to the Okeh Records label and this pretty much sealed his reputation as a blues singer and a superb guitarist. He tried to break out of the strictly blues field in 1948 when he recorded the famed "Tomorrow Night" for King Records, topping the Billboard race charts for 7 weeks and even the pop charts reaching number 19 selling 3 million copies, an extraordinary amount of sales even for those faraway non digital days. This diversity, from blues to jazz to R&B and folk and even a little bit of pop is what makes Lonnie Johnson such an interesting musician to listen to. However as a pioneer of the electric guitar, picking the instrument up as early as 1939 for a session with Bluebird Records, the influence of Lonnie Johnson across the whole spectrum of music is incalculable. His career echoed that of many of the classic bluesman of the early twentieth century in that he achieved much success in the early days only to be forgotten in the later days of the 1940s and 1950s having to make his living with whatever menial jobs he could get. Then miraculously he was discovered again during the blues boom of the 1960s from which our four selections come from. Musicians Lonnie influenced include Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, T Bone Walker and Bob Dylan who met him during the blues revival years in the 1960s and not forgetting our own Lonnie Donegan who even nicked his name after touring with him in the UK in 1952!
Victoria Spivey was born in Houston, Texas and had an extraordinary musical career that spanned over 40 years recording with such legends as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Lonnie Johnson and even Bob Dylan! Victoria had known Lonnie Johnson for years and their paths would cross many times as they both pursued their musical careers. They first recorded together in 1961 on Lonnie's "Idle Hours" (found on AVID's fine Lonnie Johnson set, AMSC1207) where Victoria would accompany Lonnie on piano and vocals. In 1962 Lonnie returned the favour and played guitar on Victoria's own album "Woman Blues" (as featured here on our second Lonnie Johnson set). As an added bonus for this set we have taken a slight liberty with our "Four Classic Album" title and included a couple of rare "mini" LP's from Lonnie "Blues" and "Lonesome Road" which features "Tomorrow Night" alongside other R&B styled numbers. Together with an extra bonus nine singles we hope you will agree the slight of hand was well worth it! As with all AVID releases, we hope you enjoy this classic set and check out our extensive catalogue for more great music across jazz, blues, country and many other musical genres.
