The Unsung Blues Legend: The Living Room Sessions (2000)

About this title: This one-of-a-kind CD, a never-before-released solo performance by Lonnie Johnson, features the bluesman five years before his death, playing guitar and singing in the living room of painter and friend Bernie Strassberg in 1965. The raw recording quality and solo guitar-and-voice format recall the classic Delta blues recordings of Robert Johnson (no relation). The ultra-informal setting also brings to mind Lenny Breau's Cabin Fever, on which the acoustic 7-string master was recorded in an isolated log cabin. While there's a deeply traditional blues feeling to Johnson's performances, many of ... read more

Tracks:

1. This Love of Mine [Parker/Sanicola/Sin]
2. September Song [Anderson/Weill]
3. Don't Cry Baby [Bernie/Johnson/John]
4. Solitude [DeLange/Mills/Ellin]
5. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) [Neiburg/Daugherty]
6. I Can't Give You Anything But Love [Fields/McHugh]
7. St. Louis Blues [Handy]
8. New Orleans Blues [Johnson]
9. Careless Love [Handy/Koenig/Willia]
10. Danny Boy [Guitar Solo] [Weatherly]
11. Backwater Blues [Smith]
12. My Mother's Eyes [Gilbert/Baer]
13. Prisoner of Love [Columbo/Gaskill/Rob]
14. There'll Be Some Changes Made [Higgins/Overstreet]
15. Jelly, Jelly [Hines/Eckstine]
16. Summertime [Gershwin/Gershwin]
17. Rockin' Chair [Fade Out] [Carmichael]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.