Johnny Mars | |
---|---|
Born | Laurens, South Carolina, United States | December 7, 1942
Genres | Electric blues [1] |
Occupation(s) | Harmonicist, singer, songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Harmonica, vocals |
Years active | Early 1960s–present |
Labels | Various |
Website | www |
Johnny Mars (born December 7, 1942) is an American electric blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter. [1] Over a long career, he has worked with Magic Sam, Earl Hooker, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Fuller, Spencer Davis, Ian Gillan, Do-Re-Mi, Bananarama and Michael Roach.
Mars was born in Laurens, South Carolina, to sharecropping parents. [1] His family regularly moved house when Mars was a youngster, but at the age of nine, he was presented with his first harmonica. When he was aged fourteen, and on the death of his mother, Mars and his younger siblings moved to New Paltz, New York, and having left high school, Mars began playing in various clubs in New York City. [2]
He signed a recording contract with Mercury Records, while a member of the band Burning Bush, and they recorded several sides with the label. [1] By the middle of the 1960s, Mars had moved to California, and formed the Johnny Mars Band, which found work but no recognition beyond their base in North California.
However, they toured with Magic Sam and played on the same bill as Earl Hooker, B.B. King and Jesse Fuller. [2] After advice from Rick Estrin (Little Charlie & the Nightcats), Mars toured the United Kingdom in 1972, and subsequently recorded two albums there for Big Bear Records before relocating to Somerset in 1978. [3] He worked with the record producer Ray Fenwick plus Spencer Davis and Ian Gillan. His album of 1984, Life on Mars, received critical acclaim. [1]
In 1988, Mars was a guest musician on the album by Do-Re-Mi, The Happiest Place in Town . He later worked with Bananarama on "Preacher Man" (1990) and their 1991 cover version of "Long Train Running", appearing in the group's music video for the former track. [1] Mars also taught for fifteen years in primary schools in England, and worked with teenagers in music projects. [2] He continued touring across the United Kingdom and Europe, where he had a strong fan base.
In 1992, Mars played at the San Francisco Blues Festival. In 1999, he released the album Stateside. On My Mind followed in 2003. [1] In 2003 and 2004, he played with the Barrelhouse Blues Orchestra. [4] More recently, Mars teamed up with the blues guitarist Michael Roach and in 2008, he appeared at the Bath Music Festival in the United Kingdom, [5] The Pocono Blues Festival (United States) and the Kastav Blues Festival (Croatia). In January 2010, the pair toured the Middle East. [6]
Year | Title | Record label |
---|---|---|
1972 | Blues from Mars | Polydor (under licence from Big Bear) |
1976 | Oakland Boogie | Big Bear |
1980 | Mighty Mars | JSP |
1984 | Life on Mars | Beat Goes On |
1994 | King of the Blues Harp | JSP |
1999 | Stateside | MM&K |
2003 | On My Mind | Springboard Productions |
John Dawson Winter III was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances, and slide guitar playing from the late 1960s into the early 2000s. He also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Mel Brown was an American-born blues guitarist and singer. He is best remembered for his decade-long backing of Bobby Bland, although in his own right Brown recorded over a dozen albums between 1967 and 2006.
Earl Zebedee Hooker was a Chicago blues guitarist known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", he performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker and fronted his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was influenced by the modern urban styles of T-Bone Walker and Robert Nighthawk. He recorded several singles and albums as a bandleader and with other well-known artists. His "Blue Guitar", a slide guitar instrumental single, was popular in the Chicago area and was later overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters as "You Shook Me".
Charles Douglas Musselwhite is an American blues harmonica player and bandleader, one who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal figure in helping to revive the Chicago Blues movement of the 1960s. He has often been identified as a "white bluesman".
Carey Bell Harrington was an American blues musician who played harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass guitar for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s before embarking on a solo career. Besides his own albums, he recorded as an accompanist or duo artist with Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor, Louisiana Red and Jimmy Dawkins and was a frequent partner with his son, the guitarist Lurrie Bell. Blues Revue called Bell "one of Chicago's finest harpists." The Chicago Tribune said Bell was "a terrific talent in the tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter." In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.
Jesse Fuller was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues".
"Preacher Man" is a song recorded by English girl group Bananarama. It appears on the group's fifth studio album, Pop Life (1991), and was released as the album's second single. The track was co-written and produced by Youth with additional production and remix by Shep Pettibone.
Plas John Johnson Jr. is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most widely known as the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme". He also performs on alto and baritone sax as well as various flutes and clarinets.
Barrelhouse Records was an American blues and rockabilly record label, set up by George Paulus in 1974.
Hans Olson, is an American musician and songwriter. He is a singer and plays an amplified acoustic guitar and a harmonica in a neck rack. He is known as one of the best "harp-in-a-rack" players in the world. Olson helped to establish and organize the Phoenix Blues Society (1988), the Arizona Green Party (1991), the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame (1995), the Arizona Music Heritage Foundation and the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (2002). In 1996, Olson was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame. Both Phoenix Magazine and Phoenix New Times named Olson as one of the most influential musicians in Arizona.
Eddie "Guitar" Burns was an American Detroit blues guitarist, harmonica player, and singer and songwriter. Among Detroit bluesmen, Burns was deemed to have been exceeded in stature by only John Lee Hooker.
James Montgomery is an American blues musician, best known as the lead singer, blues harp player, frontman, and bandleader of The James Montgomery Blues Band. Montgomery collaborates with many star performers and recording artists. He is also the past President of The New England Blues Society.
Frederick Martin Roulette was an American electric blues lap steel guitarist and singer. He was best known as an exponent of the lap steel guitar. He was a member of the band Daphne Blue and collaborated with Earl Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, Henry Kaiser, and Harvey Mandel. He also released several solo albums. One commentator described Roulette as an "excellent musician".
John "Juke" Logan was an American electric blues harmonica player, musician, singer, pianist and songwriter. He is best known for his harmonica playing on the theme music for television programs and films. In addition to playing on many other musicians' work, Logan released four solo albums, and wrote songs for Poco, John Mayall and Gary Primich.
Barrelhouse Chuck was an American Chicago blues and electric blues pianist, keyboardist, singer, and songwriter.
Andrew Odom was an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and songwriter. Born in Denham Springs, Louisiana, United States, he is best known for the close resemblance of his singing style to that of Bobby Bland and B.B. King. He recorded three solo albums in his lifetime and performed regularly around Chicago and further afield until his death.
2 Bugs and a Roach is an album by blues musician Earl Hooker released by the Arhoolie label in 1969. Jimmy Page wanted a Gibson EDS-1275 guitar, after seeing the sleeve.
Michael Cooper is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Initially coming to attention as a country blues performer, his later work also straddles jazz, Polynesian, ambient, and various experimental and improvisational styles.