Blueprint for the Blues, by Orville Johnson

Blueprint for the Blues

by Orville Johnson

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1.	Grinnin' in Your Face 03:29	info	buy track
2.	Good Understanding 02:33	info	buy track
3.	Tired Chicken Blues 03:15	info	buy track
4.	Rainy City Blues 03:12	info	buy track
5.	God's Gonna Ease My Troublin' Mind 06:36	info	buy track
6.	Other Side of Life 04:42	info	buy track
7.	If You Need Me 03:14	info	buy track
8.	The Last Meal 03:00	info	buy track
9.	Death Don't Have No Mercy 04:53	info	buy track
10.	Tears Come Rollin' Down 02:57	info	buy track
11.	Tell Ol' Bill 06:45	info	buy track
12.	Blueprint for the Blues 07:50	info	buy track

about

Originally released in 1998

Though I've been making recordings since the mid 1970s thru the vinyl and cassette tape eras, this was the first Compact Disc I released under my own name in 1998. It's a collection of tunes reflecting my love for the blues and some of the artists that influenced me. This is some of what I wrote in the original liner notes...

"The roots are important. Sister Ethel Mae was at the piano in the Assembly of God Pentecostal church. Brother Eugene directed our singing, calling songs from the dog-eared green hymnal. As a child, I was confused by the radical behavior of some of the adults with their moaning and wailing, sometimes speaking in tongues. It was hard to understand the deviation from their usual adult demeanor...but I did dig the singing.

When I was little we attended church fairly regularly. My Dad didn't go and my Mom was an occasional backslider, but my aunt lived across the field from our small farm outside Edwardsville IL and felt it her duty to get us kids to church even if our parents didn't make it. I went until I was old enough to make excuses and hide out. The gift I retained from my churchgoing days was my love of singing.

I heard a lot of music thanks to my older sister's record collection. She was into popular music and R&B sounds of the late 1950s and early 60s. She was a teenager and had a room of her own into which all others were forbidden entry. I would sneak in when she was out and listen to records and then carefully put everything back as I found it. She never caught me. When I was about 14 a schoolmate of mine, Bob Shindel, turned me on to the recently reissued records of Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, and others. This opened up a world of music I never knew existed, and when I started playing guitar at age seventeen it was some of the first material I tried to learn to play."

I still love and play these songs today. I hope you enjoy this collection.

Special Thanks : Parry Marston • Richard Russell • David Lange • Marianne Lockhart • John Miller • Johnnie Ward • Applegate • Marita Holdaway • Steven Sherrif • Benham Gallery • Rob Moitoza • Brad Inserra • Scott Law • all the musicians for their time and talent

The writer, musician, and engineering credits are all listed on the individual tracks. Click on each track to find them.

credits

released March 13, 2020

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about

Orville Johnson Seattle, Washington

Orville Johnson was raised in the Illinois heartland. He acquired his love of singing as a youth in the fundamentalist Pentecostal church he attended and, when he later began playing guitar and dobro, responded to the roots music that surrounded him by learning to play the blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music that are all part of the mosaic that characterizes his own mongrel music. ... more

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