A1 	Long About Midnight	7:06
A2 	Strange Things Happening	5:25
A3 	Look On Yonder Wall	3:35
A4 	I'm Crazy About My Baby	4:25
B1 	Tobacco Road	5:55
B2 	Breaking Up Somebody's Home 	5:00
B3 	Sweet Little Angle	5:18
B4 	Three Times Chicago	4:43

Jimmy Johnson – gutiar, vocals
David Matthews – guitar
Ike Anderson – bass
Dino Neal – drums

In many photographs of disco,Jimmy Johnson's recording career begins with the Delmark LPs Johnson's Whacks (1979) and North/South (1982).Tobacco Road, 1978 on the French label MCM appeared, but was the first blues album by Jimmy Johnson.It was recorded limited line up live (without audience!) golden slipper in Chicago with one on two guitars (Jimmy Johnson,David Matthews),bass (Ike Anderson) and drums (Dino Neal) of Marcelle Morgantini on 19 October 1977 in the Westside Club.Johnson with a high, soul infected voice sings and plays guitar in the tradition of three kings.He interpreted "Sweet Little Angel", by b.b.of Albert "Breaking Up Somebody's Home"."Look Over Yonder" comes from Elmore James.The title track of "Tobacco road",a classic,is known in versions by the Blues Magoos, Eric Burdon, Lou Rawls, Edgar winter, etc. On the 1997 reissue of Storyville records, four bonus tracks, an instrumental,two Wilson Pickett hits ("engine No.")located in addition to the eight original recordings ("Nine", "In The Midnight Hour"), which occupy the temporary home of Jimmy Johnson in the soul genre in the 1970s and the jazzy "take five" by Dave Brubeck, once again released later on Johnson's Whacks.The album features an hour of good Blues!---Bluesbreaker, avxhome.se

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01. Roots Of All Evil.
02. My Baby By My Side.
03. Blue Monday.
04. Rock And A Hard Place.
05. Street You Live On.
06. Ain't No Way.
07. Black Night.
08. Cut You Loose.
09. End Of The Road.

Jimmy Johnson (vocals, guitar).
Luther Allison (guitar).
John Beverly Randolph Jr. (guitar).
Paul Cerra (tenor saxophone).
Claude Egéa (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Frank Lacy (trombone).
Kenny Lee (piano, Wurlitzer piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond B3 organ).
Anthony Morris (bass).
Willian Ellis (drums).
Arnaud Franck (percussion).

Jimmy Johnson’s debut for the German Ruf label alternately strikes creative sparks and smothers the flame. Working from a base that is as much soul as blues, the former Grammy Award nominee employs an uptown approach to both rhythm and backbeat, relying heavily on Kenny Lee’s vamping Hammond organ and a small, tight horn section. All of this is set against Johnson’s tart single-note guitar style and keening tenor vocals.

Johnson wrote seven of the album’s ten songs, and he is at his best when the words crack together with humor and wisdom. Such ditties as "Roots of All Evil," "Ain’t No Way" and "End of the Road" (featuring some energizing lead guitar from guest star Luther Allison) entertain as well as instruct his listeners on the merits of a good heart and a positive attitude. The former Magic Sam and Freddie King sideman also dishes out some tasty R&B with a reggae edge on "The Street You Live On," but this is the only diversion from a studio formula hampered by repetition.

Johnson and company seem unable to let go of a good groove and pad out nearly every tune with extra riffs and some lengthy same-sounding solos. This not only blunts the impact of the really good songs, it stagnates the slighter material. A little focus and restraint would have gone a long way toward improving these solid cover versions of "Cut You Loose" and "Black Night," yet they too are rendered tedious and overlong.

A blues veteran of Johnson’s caliber is always worth a listen, but this outing would probably sit best with longtime fans rather than first-timers. — Ken Burke, bluesaccess.com

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1. Same Old Blues - 4:30
2. Married Woman Blues - 5:20
3. High Heel Sneakers - 4:47
4. The Things That I Used To Do - 5:04
5. Pepper's Hangout - 4:18
6. Looking For My baby - 6:01
7. Riding In The Moonlight - 4:02

Jimmy Johnson (Guitar, Vocals)
Bob Riedy (Piano)
David Matthews (Bass)
Jon Hiller (Drums)

It's always sad when, for whatever reason, a worthwhile recording goes unreleased for a long time -- and that's exactly what happened with Pepper's Hangout. On March 29, 1977, a 48-year-old Jimmy Johnson entered a Chicago studio and recorded what was meant to be his first studio LP as a leader. The LP had a working title of "Chicago Roots," and Living Blues editor Jim O'Neal was hired to write the liner notes. But regrettably, an album that should have come out in 1977 wasn't released in the U.S. until 2000, when Delmark was finally able to release the session as Pepper's Hangout. Better late than never -- this CD finds Johnson in fine form and makes one wish that the singer/guitarist hadn't waited until his late 40s to record some albums. Though Johnson includes one soul number (Eddie Jones' "The Things I Used to Do"), this is a blues disc first and foremost -- and Johnson is as passionate and confident on Robert Higginbotham's "High Heel Sneakers" and Tony Hollins' "Married Woman Blues" as he is on original material like "Looking for My Baby" (which inspires comparison to Buddy Guy's "Hello, San Francisco") and the instrumental "Pepper's Hangout." Delmark, to its credit, provides two sets of liner notes: O'Neal's original notes from 1977 and some new ones that he wrote 23 years later in October 2000. Without question, the release of this session in the U.S. was long overdue. --- Alex Henderson, allmusic.com

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1 	Chicken Heads	4:01 	
2 	Cold Cold Feeling	5:44 		
3 	Heap See	4:19 		
4 	I've the Same Old Blues		2:51 	
5 	Little by Little	4:28 		
6 	When My First Wife Quit Me	5:06 		
7 	You Don't Know What Love Is	5:15 	
8 	Happy Home	3:38 	
9 	Tobacco Road	5:26 	
10 	Missing Link		6:03 	
11 	I Don't Want No Woman	3:55

Jimmy Johnson – guitar, vocals
Jene Picket – piano
Larry Exum – bass
Fred Grady – drums

Jimmy Johnson is one of Chicago's most passionate blues singers and original guitarists, making him one of the area's top drawing bluesmen. Locally, Johnson is rated the equal of such acclaimed Chicago bluesmen as Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Lonnie Brooks and Son Seals.

Johnson's lone release on Alligator Records, BAR ROOM PREACHER, was an important step in solidifying Johnson's reputation as one of this country's top contemporary bluesmen. The album was a prime showcase for his high, gospel-tinged voice and elegantly jazzy, stinging guitar.

Raised in an exceptionally musical family in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi, Johnson began singing in the local church choir. He later sang with the United Five, a spiritual group in Memphis. After his move to Chicago in 1950, he sang and played guitar with the Golden Jubilaires.

Johnson's younger brothers, Mac and Syl, took up the blues early on and became professional Chicago blues musicians while their older brother was still working as a welder and singing with Windy City gospel groups. Mac spent many years as Magic Sam's bassist. Syl Johnson, a popular soul singer with a string of R&B hits under his belt (including the original version of “Take Me To The River”), has also remained strongly rooted in the blues.

It wasn't until the late 1950s that Johnson became a professional performer himself. In 1959, he began playing with bluesmen Magic Sam and Freddie King, and gigged with Harmonica Slim Willis and others. Though his first love was the blues, there was more money to be made as an R&B artist. Johnson spent the next 20 years jobbing as a highly successful soul and R&B guitarist and bandleader on Chicago's South and West sides.

Johnson finally grew tired of covering everyone else's hits and decided to pursue blues full-time. In 1974, he began his back-to-the-blues campaign when he signed on with Jimmy Dawkins as Dawkins' rhythm guitarist. He toured Japan with Dawkins and Otis Rush, appearing on Rush's live Japanese album and two Dawkins studio albums before putting together his own band.

Johnson's debut as a blues recording artist was explosive. In 1978, his name first garnered national attention as well as a Grammy nomination when Alligator included four previously unreleased Johnson tracks on LIVING CHICAGO BLUES, VOL. 1. These cuts, and two soon-to-follow records on the Delmark label (JOHNSON'S WHACKS in 1979 and NORTH/SOUTH in 1982), established Johnson as a witty and prolific songwriter who combined challenging arrangements and elements of jazz, rock, gospel and country into a blues style all his own.

Johnson's approach to the blues is straight ahead and honest. His 1985 Alligator effort, BAR ROOM PREACHER, features vibrant renditions of such standards “Cold, Cold Feeling,” “When My First Wife Quit Me” and “Little By Little,” as well as Johnson originals “Happy Home,” “Heap See” and “Missing Link.”

Johnson has won a variety of national and international awards over the course of his career. Since recording for Alligator and Delmark, Johnson has remained active in music and continues to tour and record. ---amazon.com

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