Jimmy Johnson – Bar Room Preacher – Alligator Records ALCD 4744 

It was a Wednesday night in the late 1980s at Mishawaka, IN’s Center Street Blues Café, and The Jimmy Johnson Blues Band was performing.  The crowd was slim that evening, and to make matters worse, Jimmy Johnson was suffering with the flu.  The combination of those two factors would have been enough for another blues artist to “dial it in” and rush through three quick sets and get out of town.  The very fact that Johnson was suffering with the flu would have been sufficient to prompt some other bluesman to outright cancel the show. 

Not Jimmy Johnson.  He and his backing three-piece band played with professional aplomb and dedication, while Johnson soared and swirled on his guitar, with his vocalizations realizing the full extent of his talents.  It was akin to watching Johnson in front of a crowd of hailing fans at a large festival.  I can still envision Johnson clutching his red Gibson guitar, bathed in the warm stage lights, offering his unique blues declarations with the assurance of the seasoned blues craftsman he was.

When Johnson passed away in January of this year, it truly was upsetting for me.  Though 93 years of age, and experiencing various afflictions, he labored forward during the pandemic times with his weekly Facebook live streams.  Johnson seemed ageless to me, and I held-out hope that he would emerge to further years of providing the masses the benefits of his colossal skill set.  Such was not to be, but thank goodness, collections such as Bar Room Preacher survive to document Johnson’s contributions to the blues.

Originally released on the French Blues Phoenix label under a different title, Alligator Records released this collection in 1983.  Johnson received great recognition in 1978 when Alligator Records included him on its Living Chicago Blues series.  He had also recorded with Jimmy Dawkins and Otis Rush on lauded outings on the Delmark label in 1979 and 1982. 

This assortment of blues is very unique in an exceptional way.  Johnson’s voice, soulful, silky, and fluid, reaches upper limits of range with a high falsetto inflection that allows extended syllables of strength.  Vocal stanzas are both strong and sensitive, depending upon matter the blues story being sung, whether it be celebratory or painful.  It was a highly-effective instrument on its own.

Johnson’s guitar style is masterfully capable of emphatic in its various cadences, tones, and moods.  It nimbly provided waves of single-string embellishments when necessitated, and created urgency and resolute backing to those cuts when such pace reinforces the song’s tenor.  It can also tear and rip at the core of the heart, as it ascends emotionally into upper registers.  Johnson’s tone has always seemed to be anchored by a clear-toned sustain that, accordingly, gives a substance and deepness to his blues visions.

Larry Exum’s bass work, both funk-laden and burbling, adds a pleasing complexity to this collection.  Fred Grady’s drumming is strong and stirring, and at times, up in the mix, but necessarily so.  The same can be said for Exum’s bass lines.  Jene Pickett’s keyboard efforts tie the proceedings together, with moody organ often looming in the background.

The overall sound here is of having the instruments merged to the front, but not in an obtrusive manner, or as to create a busy texture; it is well-mixed.

Johnson was one of those go-to bluesmen for me.  I knew if a Jimmy Johnson song was the topic of discussion, or being played on a stereo, I would stop whatever I was doing to embrace the moment.  His was a singular sound, silent now, but because of excellent collections such as this, Johnson’s music will live on and continue to stir the hearts and minds of listeners everywhere.

This is indeed a set that needs a home in any serious blues collection.  Seek it out!