The singer and guitarist Jimmy Johnson, who has died aged 93, was one of the wonders – if sometimes half-hidden – of the blues world, both for his elegant, passionate singing and for his clean-cut, inventive guitar playing. In the 1960s and 70s he established himself in the clubs of Chicago, one of the generation of musicians such as Magic Sam, Otis Rush and Freddie King who would reshape the blues for a new world and new audiences.
He maintained a distinguished position in that milieu for more than 60 years, and was described by Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records, which released some of his material, as “a searing guitar player and intense, distinctive singer whose music had the deep emotional impact of the best blues”.
For all that, Johnson never attained the celebrity of Sam or Rush, nor of other, sometimes lesser, talents, and to the frustration of his admirers he often seemed to be set in the role of Chicago’s best-kept secret. His reputation was probably higher in Europe than in the US, and many of his recordings, especially in the 80s and 90s, were done for companies in France or Germany.
Whether through luck or care, Johnson outlived most of his contemporaries and continued to sing and play into his 90s. He appeared regularly at the Chicago Blues festival, most recently in 2019, and during the coronavirus pandemic he gave livestreamed Facebook performances from his home every week. On his 92nd birthday his broadcast drew an audience of more than 80,000 – once again, much of it overseas.
He was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the second of the 10 children of Verlie Smith and Sam Thompson. By his own account he had little schooling. “Most days we worked from sunup until sundown,” he said. “At the age of eight I was working in the fields, picking, chopping and ploughing cotton and helping to tend to the farm animals.”
He sang in church as a boy and later in gospel groups in Memphis and Chicago, to where he moved in his 20s at the suggestion of an uncle. Working as a welder, he saved to bring his mother and siblings to the city, and in 1956 bought his first guitar.
Three years later he played his first gig, under the surname of Johnson, which his younger brother Syl, an accomplished soul singer, had taken for his professional moniker. He returned home to tell his soon-to-be wife, Sherry (nee Ewing), that he had been fired: “I had to start practising.”
During the 60s Johnson found most of his playing opportunities in gospel and soul music, and in leading house bands at various Chicago venues, where he backed singers such as Otis Clay and Denise LaSalle. His first album-length studio recording was made for the independent producer Ralph Bass in 1977.
The blues writer Peter Guralnick, who happened to be at the session, wrote in his book Lost Highway: “Johnson plays with the same delicacy and feeling that you hear in the clubs, his somewhat thin, sensitive voice always retaining a brittle edge.”
But the tapes were shelved for years, until finally acquired by a British company, and Johnson’s first released LPs – on a French label – were live recordings made in 1975–77 at the Chicago clubs Ma Bea’s and the Golden Slipper.
In 1978 Johnson was showcased on the first volume of Alligator Records’ revelatory series Living Chicago Blues, performing songs such as Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home that were perfectly suited to his soulful style. The albums Johnson’s Whacks (1979) and North/South (1982), made for the other significant Chicago blues label, Delmark, gave him the chance to put aside covers and use his own material, such as The Twelve Bar Blues, with its punning lines such as “I drank a dozen Buds but I don’t feel any wiser”.
Although he handled received ideas with respect, in his compositions he set original scenes and described them in witty and vivid language.
His career was interrupted by a car accident in 1988 in which two members of his band died. He returned to music a few years later, and I’m a Jockey (1993) won a Blues Music Award as a comeback album, while in 2002 Two Johnsons Are Better Than One! was a fraternal get-together with Syl, as well as being an intriguing map of two roads travelled. Another brother, Mack – who kept the name Thompson – followed them into music, playing bass guitar with Sam.
Over the years Jimmy won several other Blues Music Awards, was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2016, and in 2021 was named Blues Artist of the Year by Living Blues magazine. His last album was Every Day of Your Life (2020).
Mack died in 1991, and Syl just a few days after Jimmy, on 6 February. Jimmy is survived by Sherry, their children, LaSaundra, Geraldine, Lorenzo, Eric and Jimmy, and sisters Vivian and Marva.
• Jimmy Johnson (James Earl Thompson), blues musician, born 25 November 1928; died 31 January 2022
