The Unsung Blues Legend: The Living Room Sessions

Lonnie Johnson

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2000)
• Original Release Date: June 29, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blues Magnet
• ASIN: B00004UAIF
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #192,668 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. This Love of Mine

2. September Song

3. Don't Cry Baby

4. Solitude

5. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)

6. I Can't Give You Anything But Love

7. St. Louis Blues

8. New Orleans Blues

9. Careless Love

10. Danny Boy [Guitar Solo]

11. Backwater Blues

12. My Mother's Eyes

13. Prisoner of Love

14. There'll Be Some Changes Made

15. Jelly, Jelly

16. Summertime

17. Rockin' Chair [Fade Out]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

This disc was recorded in Bernie Strassberg's living room with a reel-to-reel, and Lonnie Johnson's elegant vocal tone and masterful command of soul-soaked roots music transform the lo-fi surroundings into a mainline of unfiltered beauty. As children trample by amid slamming doors and random pieces of conversation, Johnson's voice calmly weaves together threads of rhythm and blues that would put most 48-track studio recordings to shame. --Matthew Cooke

Amazon.com

Forty years after beginning a remarkable recording career spanning multiple generations and genres, New Orleans-born blues and jazz guitar virtuoso Lonnie Johnson sat in a friend's living room in Queens, New York, with an acoustic guitar and a reel-to-reel recorder. The songs he performed that night make up this enchanting set of classics that adds yet another dimension to the great musician's legacy. Here, we find Johnson at age 66, his plaintive voice and guitar in stunning form, mining a 20th-century musical landscape for folksy treasures as diverse as Bessie Smith's "Back Water Blues," Duke Ellington's "Solitude," Hoagy Carmichael's "Rockin' Chair," and Kurt Weill's "September Song," with "Danny Boy" and "Careless Love" also among the surprises. Although it was recorded in 1965 on crude equipment, it's easy to see from this essential CD why Lonnie Johnson deeply affected so many American musical immortals, from Robert Johnson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. --Alan Greenberg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So simple, so pure..., March 21, 2005

By	Guy Gillor "Aeroguy" (Be'er Sheva, Israel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I never meant to get this CD. Actually, I never heard of it. a few weeks ago I ordered a few CD's somewhere and when I got them, they added this CD as a bonus. I listened to it once, and then I just couldn't stop. I never got so amazed from such a simple thing. You can hear th 66 year-old Lonnie, ssitting at a friend's house with an acoustic guitar, just spilling his heart out. It doesn't matter that the recording is not in the best quality, it even adds to the feeling. His voice is so bittersweet, it brings me tears to listen to him. such a perfect combination of voice and his unique guitar playing... another thing is that you can really tell it was recorded at a home surrounding: kids running around, talking to "daddy"... all of the atmosphere make it one of the best, honest and heartful recordings I ever heard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Statement From A Masterful Performer, January 13, 2005

By	Adam E. Maroney "Nighttripper" (Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lonnie Johnson's "The Unsung Blues Legend: The Living Room Sessions," is a remarkable monument to a man whose lengthy musical career spanned over six decades and reached stellar heights and very low points, such as when he was reduced to working as a custodian. The setting is informal with a warm, laid-back ambiance that you wish would never end. Johnson gently flows from one classic song to another, all the while making you feel as though you are right there in the same living room sitting in a comfortable chair and enjoying the beautiful sounds. The faint sounds of talking children in the background makes this recording all the more real, as if it could have been made in your own home or in that of a friend. By the time Johnson finishes this set, you do feel as though you have made a good friend, for whom you feel some pity for because he was never given the recognition such an outstanding artist is worthy of. Pick up a copy of this CD, you'll be glad you did.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great music but the Folkways recordings of same have more, March 23, 2004

By	Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

These records are unique. Johnson plays all of these selections solo on an a very acoustic sounding electric guitar and sings them all. Now and then he talks about the songs. This is a master who had been playing and singing for 40 years. Yet, there is so much personal sentimental and feeling here, so much expression in the guitar playing. You feel like you know the man after you hear this. You feel like you really know these songs anew after you hear this album. This is a good album for a thoughtful evening with a good glass of wine, a good friend, and an open mind!

Check out the full folkways recordings that have 24 songs like this not just 12