Jimmy Johnson – Pepper’s Hangout – Delmark Records DD-745

It was a Wednesday evening in the late 1980s at the Center Street Blues Café in Mishawaka, IN.  The Jimmy Johnson Blues Band was playing to a sparse audience, and further adding to the dismal evening, Johnson was just drained due to a bad case of the flu.  Any other performer may have just “phoned in” the night’s show and hurried through three swift sets just to get paid and drive the 90 miles west to get back home to Chicago.  Further, the very fact that Johnson was badly ill with the flu would have been enough to persuade another blues artist to call off the show entirely.  But not Johnson and his crew. 

His professional three-piece band performed with poise and commitment while he surged and churned on his guitar, with his singing realizing the full scope of his broad aptitudes.  It was similar to enjoying Johnson before a massive crowd of welcoming fans at a big outdoor festival.  I can still visualize Johnson holding his red Gibson guitar, immersed in the warm red stage lighting, extending his exceptional blues affirmations with the composure of the veteran bluesman he was.

When Johnson died in early 2022, it was very distressing for me.  Though 93 years of age at the time, and suffering with various ailments, he endeavored ahead during the pandemic era with his weekly Facebook livestream performances.  Johnson was always ageless to me, and I grasped onto optimistic hope that he would come out of the pandemic to additional years of offering his adoring masses the profits of his vast skill set.  Such was not to be but, thank goodness, sets such as Pepper’s Hangout endure to record Johnson’s immense blues impacts. 

The material (seven selections) on this 2000 Delmark Records release was originally recorded in March, 1977 under the leadership of the famed producer Ralph Bass and, at that time, it was supposed to be the first studio collection as a featured performer for the-then 48-year-old Johnson.  Listening to this superb outing, why in the world Johnson had to wait until his late forties to have an album come out under his own name is a question that has to be proffered. 

The original release was supposed to be part of a ten-part series entitled Chicago Roots, but the U.S. backer of the series pulled out.  Years afterwards, one of the British labels took control of the various recordings through licensing.  However, it was years later when Delmark Records purchased the rights to them and ultimately released the collection.

On Pepper’s Hangout, Johnson is splendidly in control of his considerable, efficient guitar sorties and impassioned, soulful, and higher-register vocals, and the combination of those two factors is contemporary blues of the highest art form.

Across the span of this release, Johnson’s fluidity and sensitivity that he always exhibited in performance stands out. 

Supplementing Johnson’s blues magnificence is celebrated bandleader Bob Riedy on keyboards, bass man David Matthew, and percussionist Jon Hiller.  Each plays their supporting component ideally, offering Johnson ample space to shine.

This is pinnacle-level modern-day blues by one of the most exceptional practitioners of the genre.

This is indeed an essential modern-day blues outing that demands a place in any meaningful blues collection.