Johnny Shines “Live” In Europe (1975)

Johnny Shines, vocal, guitar.

Genres: Mississippi country blues, bottleneck-slide guitar.

Informative 12 page, illustrated, booklet notes by Bob Groom.

Released fro this first time, the recordings on this Document CD are from 3 nights that Johnny played at Jazzland. The songs exemplify Johnny’s vocal range and lyric invention as he touches on the sad themes of loneliness, illness, aging and mortality. Like Big Boy Crudup, in standard tuning Johnny was a functional guitarist good but not flashy, but when using a slide he overwhelmed the listener with his playing. Bob Groom in the cd sleeve notes says of Johnny: “The sheer power, dynamic range and emotional intensity of Johnny`s music must put him in the top rank of blues vocalists. I once dubbed him the male equivalent of Memphis Minnie and he was flattered, certainly not offended, by the comparison.” In addition to performances of some of Johnny Shine’s classic commercial recordings and covers of well known Robert Johnson recordings this album boasts hitherto unrecorded numbers by Shines himself. This recording extends our appreciation of his talents as a performer and recording artist, putting him amongst the very greatest blues artists of all time.