Jan. 2012 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise Part II - correspondent Stilladog

When we hit St. Croix, USVI, it was just in time for the St. Croix Blues Festival. This festival began at noon and was spread out across various bars all afternoon culminating in a huge gathering at the Verne I. Richards Memorial Park stage in Frederiksted at dusk where the featured artists were Coco Montoya, Shemekia Copeland, and the Low Rider Band (formerly known as WAR... the band can't legally market themselves as WAR, but I can say that).

After a hike of 1.25 miles through "the jungle," as my wife called it, I hit a place called Rhythms At Rainbow Beach. They had a local band called the St. Croix Blues Society playing. These guys jammed and played well beyond the 12-3 time frame. I ended up here due to a prior commitment to deliver some Tom Jenkins BBQ Sauce down from Ft. Lauderdale to the keyboard player of the St. Croix Blues Society, Tom Eimer. And what I discovered at Rhythms is that Harry Nilsson was right. You put de lime in de coconut and drink em bot togetta, put de lime in de coconut den you feel betta. The Lime In The Coconut is their signature drink and it alone was worth the hike!

By the time I got to the festival stage Coco Montoya was just starting up. He did an abbreviated set due to technical sound difficulties but it was very inspired. About half way through, a typical Caribbean rain squall hit the festival. But we all had so many Bushwhackers, Cruzan Confusions, and Voo Doo Juice in us (on top of the Lime In The Coconuts) it didn't really matter. Coco kept jamming and we absorbed it all.

I had never seen Coco Montoya play before and was surprised to find that he is a left handed picker using a right handed guitar, a la Jimi Hendrix.

After a brief respite from the rain, another squall hit and we headed back for the ship where we sat on our balcony and listened to Shemekia Copeland and Low Rider Band.

The next day in St. Maartens, N.V. was spent at the beach but was not without music. We were thoroughly entertained by The Might Dow, aka Isadore York, and his steel pan band. Well known as the Calypso King of St. Maartens, The Mighty Dow proved that what Etta James said is true, "It's all blues."

After his scheduled set, The Mighty Dow continued to jam with the Kenny Neal Band who laid down an awesome groove for a sunny day at the beach! Kenny Neal employs nearly all his family (brothers, sisters, children etc.) in the band. Most noteworthy being his brother Frederick on keys who also hosted late night jams in the Piano Bar along with Mitch Woods and Eden Brent. And you must see Kenny's twin sisters Charlene and Darlene shake their sizable bootays! Let me tell you the James Brown Dancers got nothin' on those girls!!

The next act for review is the Homemade Jamz Band. Another family band which consists of two brothers and their sister, Ryan (vocal and guitar), Kyle (bass) and Taya (drums) Perry. In addition to giving a blues "tutorial" of sorts to public school children on St. Croix, these youngsters really rock it out! They also appear to be very nice and talented young folks who are only going to get better. Again, the blues is in good hands with kids like this playing it! Of note is Ryan Perry's custom guitar made from a Ford muffler and replete with dual tailpipes!!

Also appearing and representing the artwork of the cruise was my old buddy, James "Super Chikan" Johnson. Clearly Super Chikan was by far the most accessible, funny, and generally congenial artist on the cruise as he was on my last Blues Cruise in Jan. of 2010. He takes the time to talk with anyone who strikes up a conversation with him and is more than happy to clown around during an impromptu photo request. His music was great but the man is greater than what he plays.

Also appearing was Rod Piazza & the All Mighty Flyers featuring Rod on harp and his wife, the incomparable Honey Piazza, on keyboards. Rod might have had the tightest band on the ship. Among some very very professional performances, The All Mighty Flyers stood out. Ran into the Piazzas in the elevator where Honey and I reminisced about the time we were backstage for Aretha Franklin's Chesapeake Blues Fest performance. Honey told me that Aretha is getting married. But by the time I was on the plane for home, People magazine informed me that the nuptials were off.

I tried to catch some of Bettye LaVette but something about her rubbed me the wrong way. I think it was her stage presence or personality. At one point she said she was going to sing all her "hits" and ask the audience why they never sold. Bettye's recordings are great but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to see her live. To be fair, those who stayed said she did a stirring performance on her cover of The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me."

I know Kenny Wayne Shepherd was the feature headliner of this cruise but I never bothered to go see him. I've seen KWS perform numerous times and he can really play. But he doesn't bring anything new to the table. I know Bman doesn't share this feeling but I can just as easily listen to my old Stevie Ray Vaughan records if that's what I want to hear. Word on the ship from those who did see him play was that his special guest, Buddy Flett, was the star of his show anyway. I tried to watch Kenny Wayne's last set from the TV in my stateroom as I packed to disembark, but after 4 tunes I switched over to the Weather Channel.

So that's about it in two nutshells. Bottom line here is that the Legendary Blues Cruise is first and foremost the best vacation you can ever have. And secondly, if you enjoy blues music the cruise is the place to be. They've got another one scheduled for October sailing out of San Juan, PR. If you can, get on it!!

We are going to do something the Devil ain't done, we fixin' to leave! - Super Chikan

James "Super Chikan" Johnson (born February 16, 1951, Darling, Mississippi) is an American blues musician, based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson.
One commentator noted that Super Chikan, along with Big Jack Johnson, Booba Barnes, R. L. Burnside, and Paul "Wine" Jones were "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues soundSuper Chikan goes one step further to show that it's in the hands...as he plays a guitar made from a shotgun.
Delta Bluesman, Super Chikan, plays one of his unique creations during the , 2011 Juke Joint Festival, Clarksdale Mississippi (at Ground Zero Club).
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Rum Boogie - Super Chikan and Watermelon Slim

James "Super Chikan" Johnson is a Blues Music Award winning American blues musician, artist and guitar maker based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson.

James Louis Johnson was born in Darling, Mississippi on February 16, 1951. He spent his childhood moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta and working on his family's farms. He was very fond of the chickens on the farm, and before he was old enough to work in the fields, he would walk around talking to them. This led his friends to give him the nickname "Chikan Boy". At an early age, Johnson got his first rudimentary musical instrument, a "diddley bow", which was simply a piece of wood with a piece of baling wire stretched from end to end. As he grew up, he came up with new ways to improve and vary the sounds he could make with it, and finally, in 1964, at the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar, an acoustic model that had only two strings, from a Salvation Army store in Clarksdale.

As an adult, “Super Chikan” began driving a truck for a living. During the long stretches on the road, he began composing his own songs. When he showed some of the songs to his friends, they convinced him to go a studio and record them. He then started playing with some renowned local musicians, but he decided he would rather perform on his own than try to conform his style to that of his band-mates.

Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans has built a remarkable reputation with his raw, impassioned intensity. HARP Magazine wrote "From sizzling slide guitar...to nitty-gritty harp blowing...to a gruff, resonating Okie twang, Slim delivers acutely personal workingman blues with both hands on the wheel of life, a bottle of hooch in his pocket, and the Bible on the passenger seat." Paste Magazine writes "He's one hell of a bottleneck guitarist, and he's got that cry in his voice that only the greatest singers in the genre have had before him."

The industry agrees on all fronts. Watermelon Slim & The Workers have garnered 17 Blues Music Award nominations in four years including a record-tying six in both 2007 & 2008. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have landed six in a year and Slim is the only blues artist in history with twelve in two consecutive years. In Spring 2009 he was the cover story of Blues Revue magazine. Now, Watermelon Slim is making more waves with Escape From the Chicken Coop, his first-person account of the days he spent driving a truck. It is just one of many instances of a life spent changing gears.

Delta Rising: A Blues Documentary -- Trailer

A film documentary about the blues. Clarksdale Mississippi to Memphis Tennessee. Although not new, a new one on the list for me to watch!

Features Morgan Freeman, Bill Luckett, Jimbo Mathus, Scott Bomar, James Montgomery, Chris Cotton, Ruby Wilson, Super Chikan, Grace Kelly, Pinetop Perkins, Honeyboy Edwards and others.

Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

Building a Cigar Box Guitar

The cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone whose resonator is a discarded cigar box. Because the instrument is homemade, there is no standard for dimensions, string types or construction techniques. Many early cigar box guitars consisted of only one or two strings that were attached to the ends of a broomstick that was inserted into the cigar box. Other cigar box guitars were more complex, with the builder attempting to simulate a traditional string instrument such as a guitar, banjo, or fiddle.

Cigars were packed in boxes, crates, and barrels as early as 1800, but the small sized boxes that we are familiar with today did not exist prior to around 1840.[1] Until then, cigars were shipped in larger crates containing 100 or more per case. After 1840, cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20-50 cigars per box.

Trace evidence of cigar box instruments exist from 1840 to the 1860s. The earliest illustrated proof of a cigar box instrument known is an etching copyrighted in 1876 of two Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle. The etching was created by illustrator and artist Edwin Forbes who, under the banner of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, worked for the Union Army. The etching was included in Forbes work Life Stories of the Great Army. In the etching, the cigar box fiddle clearly shows the brand ‘Figaro’ on the cigar box.

In addition to the etching, plans for a cigar box banjo were published by Daniel Carter Beard, co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, in 1884 as part of 'Christmas Eve With Uncle Enos.' The plans, eventually retitled ‘How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo’ as part of Beard's American Boy’s Handy Book in the 1890 release as supplementary material in the rear of the book. These plans omitted the story but still showed a step-by-step description for a playable 5-string fretless banjo made from a cigar box.

It would seem that the earliest cigar box instruments would be extremely crude and primitive; however, this is not always the case. The National Cigar Box Guitar Museum, according to One Man's Trash: A History of the Cigar Box Guitar[3], has acquired two cigar box fiddles built in 1886 and 1889 that seem very playable and well built. The 1886 fiddle was made for an 8 year old boy and is certainly playable, but the 1889 fiddle has a well carved neck and slotted violin headstock. The latter instrument was made for serious playing.

The cigar box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and blues. As most of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a "real" instrument. Using these, along with the washtub bass (similar to the cigar box guitar), jugs, washboards, and harmonica, black musicians performed blues during socializations.

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical instruments. Times were hard in the American south and for entertainment sitting on the front porch singing away their blues was a popular pastime. Musical instruments were beyond the means of everybody, but an old cigar box, a piece of broom handle and a couple wires from the screen door and a guitar was born.

A modern revival of these instruments (also known as the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution) has been gathering momentum with an increase in cigar box guitar builders and performers. A loose-knit tour of underground musicians tour the East Coast (US) each summer under the banner "Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar Tour." These musicians include Doctor Oakroot, Johnny Lowebow, Tomi-O and many others. Also, there is a growing number of primitive luthiers adding cigar box guitars to their items for sale.[citation needed] Of the more noteworthy cigar box guitar makers is Shane Speal, the so-called "King of the Cigar Box Guitar."

Modern revival is sometimes due to interest in jugband and the DIY culture, as a cigar box is relatively inexpensive when considering other factors, such as strings and construction time. Many modern cigar box guitar can thus be seen as a type of practice in lutherie, and implement numerous personal touches, such as the addition of pick up and resonator cones into it.

The modern revival of cigar box guitars is documented in the 2008 film, "Songs Inside The Box" which was shot primarily at an annual Huntsville, Alabama event called the Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza

This is the first in a series of how to build a cigar box guitar.

Super Chikan - Interview - Building Guitars - Talkin' Chicken

James "Super Chikan" Johnson is a Blues Music Award winning American blues musician, artist and guitar maker based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson.

James Louis Johnson was born in Darling, Mississippi on February 16, 1951. He spent his childhood moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta and working on his family's farms. He was very fond of the chickens on the farm, and before he was old enough to work in the fields, he would walk around talking to them. This led his friends to give him the nickname "Chikan Boy". At an early age, Johnson got his first rudimentary musical instrument, a "diddley bow", which was simply a piece of wood with a piece of baling wire stretched from end to end. As he grew up, he came up with new ways to improve and vary the sounds he could make with it, and finally, in 1964, at the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar, an acoustic model that had only two strings, from a Salvation Army store in Clarksdale.

As an adult, “Super Chikan” began driving a truck for a living. During the long stretches on the road, he began composing his own songs. When he showed some of the songs to his friends, they convinced him to go a studio and record them. He then started playing with some renowned local musicians, but he decided he would rather perform on his own than try to conform his style to that of his band-mates.

He did so, and in 1997 “Super Chikan” released his debut album, Blues Come Home to Roost, influenced by such musicians as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry. He went on to release What You See in 2000, Shoot That Thang in 2001, Chikan Supe in 2005, Sum Mo Chikan in 2008, and Chikadelic in 2009, which was awarded the 2010 Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Album.

Welcome To Sunny Bluesville, Super Chikan's latest CD, was recorded at XM / Sirius Satellite Radio's state-of-the-art performance studio in Washington, DC. It features both Chikan solo and with his band, The Fighting Cocks.

In the Clarksdale area, "Super Chikan" is probably best-known for performing regularly at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero blues club, and for being Freeman's favorite blues performer. “Super Chikan” has toured and performed at festivals in Africa, Iceland, Japan, UK, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia and Switzerland, and has performed for the President of the United States. He was recently nominated by the Blues Foundation, for his second year in a row, the Blues Music Awards for BB King Entertainer of the Year and Traditional Male Blues Artist.

Last year, he was honored with four nominations, including BB King Entertainer of the Year, Song of the Year for "Fred's Dollar Store", Traditional Blues Male Artist, and he won the BMA for Traditional Blues Album of the Year for Chikadelic. He was previously nominated for the Best New Artist Blues Music Award in 1998, and has received five Living Blues Critics Awards. In 2004, “Super Chikan” received the Mississippi Governorʼs Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Shoot That Thang

Photo of Blues Ace and Super Chikan on the Blues Cruise last year. This video features Super Chikan on Cigar Box Guitar. He spent his childhood moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta and working on his family's farms. He was very fond of the chickens on the farm, and before he was old enough to work in the fields, he would walk around talking to them. This led his friends to give him the nickname "Chikan Boy". At an early age, Johnson got his first rudimentary musical instrument, a "diddley bow", which was simply a piece of wood with a piece of baling wire stretched from end to end. As he grew up, he came up with new ways to improve and vary the sounds he could make with it, and finally, in 1964, at the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar, an acoustic model that had only two strings, from a Salvation Army store in Clarksdale.

As an adult, Super Chikan began driving a truck for a living. During the long stretches on the road, he began composing his own songs. When he showed some of the songs to his friends, they convinced him to go to a studio and record them. He then started playing with some renowned local musicians, but he decided he would rather perform on his own than try to conform his style to that of his bandmates. He did so, and in 1997 he released his debut album, Blues Come Home to Roost, influenced by such musicians as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry. He went on to release What You See in 2000, Shoot That Thang in 2001, "Chikan Supe" in 2005, and "Sum' Mo' Chikan" in 2007. In the Clarksdale area, he is probably best-known for performing regularly at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero blues club and for being Freeman's favorite blues performer. He also played support to Steven Seagal's band 'Thunderbox.'

Super Chikan's latest release was 'Chikadelic', and is distributed by BluesTown Records. It was recorded in Notodden, Norway's famed Juke Joint Studios, and was released at the 2009 Notodden Blues Festival. Super Chikan was backed by Norway's, Spoonful of Blues.