Mary Johnson (singer)

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Mary Johnson
Birth nameMary Smith or Fair or Williams
Also known asSignifying Mary [1]
Born(1898-03-29)March 29, 1898 or 1900
Yazoo City, Mississippi, United States
Died(1983-07-20)July 20, 1983 (age 83–85)
St Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Genres Classic female blues [2]
Occupation(s)Singer, accordionist, songwriter
Instrument(s)Vocals, accordion
Years active1920s–1930s
Formerly of Lonnie Johnson

Mary Johnson (March 29, 1898 or 1900 – July 20, 1983) [3] was an American classic female blues singer, accordionist and songwriter. [2] Her most noted tracks are "Dream Daddy Blues" and "Western Union Blues." [4] She wrote several of the songs she recorded, including "Barrel House Flat Blues", "Key to the Mountain Blues" and "Black Men Blues." [4] [5] Johnson worked with Peetie Wheatstraw, Tampa Red, Kokomo Arnold and Roosevelt Sykes, among others. She was married to the blues musician Lonnie Johnson. [4]

Contents

Biography

She was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi. [2] According to the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc, she was probably born Mary Smith in 1898, or possibly Mary Fair in 1900; [3] other sources give her name as Mary Williams. [2]

Prior to her recording career, Johnson relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1915, where in her teenage years she worked with several of the leading blues musicians of the time. [5] She married Lonnie Johnson; the marriage lasted from 1925 to 1932. They had six children. [2]

She recorded twenty-two tracks between 1929 and 1936: eight songs in 1929, six in 1930, two in 1932, four in 1934, and two (her final recordings) in 1936. [2] [1] Her accompanists on these recordings included Roosevelt Sykes, Peetie Wheatstraw, Tampa Red, and Kokomo Arnold. [6]

Johnson worked in the St. Louis area until the mid-1940s. [5] Her song "Key to the Mountain Blues" was recorded in 1948 by Jesse Thomas as "Mountain Key Blues." [1]

By the 1950s, Johnson had long since given up her career in music. She focused on religion and worked in a hospital. [2] [5] In 1960, she was interviewed by the blues historian Paul Oliver, and extracts from this interview were included in his book Conversation with the Blues. Oliver stated, "Living with her mother Emma Williams in an apartment on Biddle Street, St. Louis, Johnson has known considerable poverty for many years." [1]

Johnson died in St. Louis in 1983, [3] though some sources suggest 1970. [4]

All of her known recordings are on the compilation album Complete Works in Chronological Order, 1929–1936, released by Document Records in 1995. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Joe Williams</span> American guitarist, recording artist, singer and songwriter

Joseph Lee Williams was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over five decades, he recorded the songs "Baby, Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake", and "Peach Orchard Mama", among many others, for various record labels. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on October 4, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roosevelt Sykes</span> Musical artist

Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "the Honeydripper".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonnie Johnson (musician)</span> American blues and jazz musician (1899–1970)

Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer, guitarist, violinist and songwriter. He was a pioneer of jazz guitar and jazz violin and is recognized as the first to play an electrically amplified violin.

James "Kokomo" Arnold was an American blues musician. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense style of playing and rapid-fire vocal delivery set him apart from his contemporaries. He got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for Decca Records, a cover version of Scrapper Blackwell's blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana.

Victoria Regina Spivey, sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and record company founder. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sister Addie "Sweet Peas" Spivey, also known as the Za Zu Girl. Among her compositions are "Black Snake Blues" (1926), "Dope Head Blues" (1927), and "Organ Grinder Blues" (1928). In 1961, she co-founded Spivey Records with one of her husbands, Len Kunstadt.

Admirl Amos Easton, better known by the stage name Bumble Bee Slim, was an American Piedmont blues singer and guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peetie Wheatstraw</span> Musical artist

William Bunch, known as Peetie Wheatstraw, was an American musician, an influential figure among 1930s blues singers.

Charley Jordan was an American St. Louis blues singer, songwriter and guitarist, as well as a talent scout, originally from Mabelvale, Arkansas, United States. He was known for a unique style that drew on his rural roots.

Theodore Roosevelt Darby, better known as Blind Teddy Darby, was an American blues singer and guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweet Home Chicago</span> Blues standard first recorded by Robert Johnson

"Sweet Home Chicago" is a blues standard first recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936. Although he is often credited as the songwriter, several songs have been identified as precedents. The song has become a popular anthem for the city of Chicago despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics. Numerous artists have interpreted the song in a variety of styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Mayo Williams</span> American football player and coach, music producer (1894–1980)

Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded blues music. Some historians have claimed that Ink Williams earned his nickname by his ability to get the signatures of talented African-American musicians on recording contracts, but in fact it was a racial sobriquet from his football days, when he was a rare Black player on white college and professional teams. He was the most successful "race records" producer of his time, breaking all previous records for sales in this genre.

Spivey Records was a specialist blues record label founded by blues singer Victoria Spivey and jazz historian Len Kunstadt in 1961. Spivey Records released a series of blues and jazz albums between 1961 and 1985.

Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.

Irene Scruggs was an American Piedmont blues and country blues singer, who was also billed as Chocolate Brown and Dixie Nolan. She recorded songs such as "My Back to the Wall" and "Good Grindin'" and worked with Clarence Williams, Joe "King" Oliver, Lonnie Johnson, Little Brother Montgomery, Blind Blake, Albert Nicholas, and Kid Ory. Scruggs achieved some success but today is largely forgotten.

Edith North Johnson was an American classic female blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Her most noted tracks are "Honey Dripper Blues", "Can't Make Another Day" and "Eight Hour Woman". She wrote another of her songs, "Nickel's Worth of Liver Blues".

Dorothea Trowbridge, first name also spelled Dorthea, Doretha, was an American blues singer active in St. Louis in the 1930s. A few recordings by her remain, at least one of which includes lyrics on the theme of "grinding".

Charles Pertum, known professionally as Charlie "Specks" McFadden, was an American country blues singer and songwriter. On his few recordings, released from 1929 to 1937, he was accompanied by Roosevelt Sykes, Lonnie Johnson, Pinetop Sparks and others. His most notable song was one he wrote, "Groceries on the Shelf ", which he recorded in Grafton, Wisconsin, about February 1930.

Jimmie Gordon was an American Chicago blues pianist, singer, and songwriter. In the course of his career he accompanied Memphis Minnie, Bumble Bee Slim, and Big Bill Broonzy, amongst others. He had a hit with "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water" (1936) and was active on the Chicago blues scene for a number of years leading up to World War II. He is known to have recorded 67 tracks between 1934 and 1946. Gordon was a mainstay of Decca Records during the 1930s and early 1940s, with his recorded work utilizing a piano accompaniment, as well as guitar, or with a small band that he assembled for the work.

Thomas F. McFarland, known professionally as Barrelhouse Buck McFarland was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist, singer and composer. He first recorded material in the early 1930s, but had to wait until three decades later, before providing his 'barrelhouse' swan song.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Mary Johnson". Sundayblues.org. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Layne, Joslyn. "Mary Johnson: Biography". Allmusic.com. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. p. 187. ISBN   978-0313344237.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Doc Rock. "The 1970s". TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Mary Johnson". Redhotjazz.com. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  6. 1 2 Yanow, Scott. "Mary Johnson, Complete Works in Chronological Order (1929–1936): Review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.