Track Listing

1. Haunted House
2. Memories of You
3. Blues for Chris
4. I Found a Dream
5. St. Louis Blues
6. I'll Get Along Somehow
7. Savoy Blues
8. Backwater Blues
9. Elmer's Blues
10. He's a Jelly Roll Baker

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87121 in Music
• Brand: Johnson
• Released on: 1991-07-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
This beautiful album was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder in his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home studio where so much jazz history was made. It features guitar innovators Lonnie Johnson and Elmer Snowden together for the first time--despite a friendship going back to the 1920s when both appeared on some of the earliest jazz and blues 78s. Johnson, the father of single-note six-string soloing, is in marvelous voice on this selection of blues, ballads, and jazz, crooning the double-entendre "Jelly Roll Baker" and the heartache-laden "Back Water Blues" (a Bessie Smith tune he first cut in 1927) with a marksman's sense of pitch and chilling nuance. Snowden serves mostly as accompanist. But these men play so closely that they seem to be sharing every breath. --Ted Drozdowski

Customer Reviews

Mellow blues
This is the first of a pair of CDs recorded in April 1960 by two great players who were just re-emerging from obscurity. Lovely guitar playing, warm and moving singing by Johnson, and a wonderful atmosphere of two old friends enjoying themselves make these disks a treasure not to be missed. The bass player provides good support but is not very noticeable.

Heartfelt music
This album is a pleasure for any listener of good music. It gives the sensation that the performers are talking at the living room in front of the fire. It's sincere and heartfelt music. The ambient it creates is really warm, as warm and smooth are the guitars and the voice of Lonnie Johnson.

I always think that if this kind of records were available for everybody, the world would be more peaceful.

Get it, you'll never regret.

Good ol way...
Lately, i was eagering to listen to some acoustic melodic blues, and guess what? This record does the trick.
I have a couple of classics on cd from Missisippi john hurt, robert johnson, john lee hooker and so on.. And of course they're all great bluesman and great sounding acoustic records, but this particular album by Lonnie Johnson is very special. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of the standards, but the way he sings and plays it, I tell you, it's original, unique and outstanding.
Pay close attention and keep an open ear for every single track on this album, it's worth it. "Memories of you" even made me want to get up, grab my girl and dance to this wonderful ballad.
In the middle of some tracks, you hear conversations between Lonnie Johnson and Elmer Snowden really feeling the music and having fun with their playing.
It's amazing. Thumbs up for this record.