Cover photo © 2024 Bob Kieser
James “Super Chikan” Johnson was born into a deep legacy of blues. His grandfather Ellis Johnson was a prominent bluesman in Mississippi who played regularly with Robert Johnson in the 1920’s. The two musicians made a pact to each other that if something happened to one of them, the other would carry on their legacy.
After Robert Johnson died, Johnson said that his grandfather Ellis “was afraid somebody would poison him, so he stopped playing out… and started fiddling for the rich folks.” Johnson’s grandfather was a free mason and held meetings at his house.
“He was a mason. He was part of the Underground Railroad and they would have meetings…”
Like the Underground Railroad in the 1850’s, a network which helped slaves escape north to freedom, Ellis Johnson’s group helped local blacks escape sharecropping.
“They was like sending people off the plantation in the middle of the night, setting them free.”
In order to keep these meetings a secret, he would invite musicians to play and call it a front porch party. Many blues musicians who had moved north would visit and play these parties. Johnson vividly remembers the great Jimmy Reed playing at his grandfather’s house. He lists Jimmy Reed as one of his primary influences.
These meetings left a lasting impression on young Johnson, who would sneak under his grandfather’s porch to listen.
“There was no other music in the world like it, you know what I mean?”
This was one of the only opportunities for young Johnson to hear blues. There was a radio in his home, but it could only tune into one station which played country music. When I asked if he enjoyed listening to country he responded.
“I had no other choice…I like good country songs…with a good groove to them and a good story.”
Around this same time, Johnson built himself his first instrument, a diddley bow. It was made by tying a wire around two nails on the side of the house. Johnson, who has always been an entertainer, moved the wire from the side of the house to stick so he could show people.
“It didn’t resonate too much on that stick, so it became a percussion instrument and I used to beat on it. Eventually I found box, a little wood box, and put the stick in that box and it resonated.”
Johnson soon saved his money working in the fields and bought his first guitar. It was six dollars from the salvation army store, and the only issue was that this guitar only had two strings.
“I thought that was all it was supposed to have. I played it a couple of weeks… somebody said, ‘When are you gonna put the rest of the strings on it?’”
Johnson continued to save his money and went back to the store to purchase a pack of strings. Now with six strings, Johnson continued to hone his skills and play around his neighborhood. Everyone in his family could play.
“My mom would do a thing called the Honky Tonk… (Johnson imitated the sound of a classic Jimmy Reed rhythm guitar part) she showed me how to do that.”
Johnson recognizes that this rhythm is still a large part of his sound today.
It is important to note that Johnson is left-handed and plays a right-handed guitar.
“I’m left legged, left minded, left brained, left hearted, and left out… I was born left-handed and was nothing around me but right-handed guitars…I came up with my own style that I could play on the right-handed guitar.”
Johnson continues to play a right-handed guitar today and jokes about a fan who noticed him signing autographs with his left hand after a show.
“He said you’re an ambidextrous. I said ‘boy, you don’t know what I’m about to call you!’”
James “Super Chikan” Johnson is the nephew of the legendary delta bluesman Big Jack Johnson. His uncle Big Jack offered him some of his first gigs playing bass with The Jelly Roll Kings.
“Now everybody says, wow you played with some legends! But they weren’t legends at the time, just regular guys.”
Big Jack had been playing bass, and Frank Frost had been playing guitar. When Johnson joined, Big Jack switched to guitar, and Frank Frost to the keyboard. The group played around Mississippi in Clarksdale, Lula, Moon Lake, and Tutwiler. When the band began to travel further to cities like St. Louis and Chicago, Johnson stayed home. He had a day job working for the Mennonites, doing land leveling and surveying. He explained.
“That’s why I couldn’t travel with The Jelly Roll Kings… I had to be on the job at six o’clock in the morning.”
I asked Johnson if he ever learned anything on guitar from his Uncle.
“If you played with him or played anywhere near or around him, he would turn his back to you…he didn’t want you to learn nothing from him.”
Today, Johnson looks back on this as a good life lesson because he was forced to come up with his own sound on the guitar.
During one of his first gigs with The Jelly Roll Kings, his Uncle saw his handmade guitar and asked if he could make him one. Johnson has been building guitars and selling them ever since.
“Musicians don’t like buying my guitars because I sell them pretty high…I said y’all missing the point…this is handmade by a delta blues musician. The one you got was factory made.”
The arts community has embraced Johnson as a folk artist and a master craftsman.
“Collectors, art collectors, some people that don’t even play at all, buy them just because they like the look of them.”
Johnson explained that advertising in magazines and online has caused some issues in the past because he couldn’t build his guitars fast enough to meet the demand. He has made instruments out of unique household items such as a broken ceiling fan. He repurposed the fan into an instrument he calls a Gi-Jo, as it’s a cross between a guitar and a banjo. Johnson has his own style when designing his instruments, and each one has a beautiful look and sound.
Johnson leads a unique band, comprised of all female musicians. This started with Johnson’s daughter playing drums. He soon hired a female pianist, and the pair suggested to him that he hire a female bassist. He had remembered a bassist he saw working with Eddie Clearwater, and when she joined, the band was set. Johnson has now toured with an all-female backing band for over twenty years. I asked Johnson if he had seen any bands like this when he was growing up.
“They had a lot of female singers, good singers…but not just females on the stage working…playing instruments. You had to go way on back to people like Big Mama Thornton and Jesse Mae Hemphill.”
Johnson said in the early days with his new group, it was hard for everybody to get along on the road.
“I never heard so much chaos between women…In the beginning I didn’t know whether this band was going to stay together or not.”
However, with the steady touring schedule and the constant time spent together, everyone in the band began to find common ground.
“They know how to get along with each other…everything works out fine now.”
Johnson and his band have toured all over the world. The first highlights that stick out to Johnson were from a festival in Cognac France.
“I got invited to the governor’s mansion for dinner…I broke the CD sales record for 14 years…I went to the Cognac factory and made my own bottle with a reorder number.”
Johnson said the band stayed at a nice bed and breakfast and that, “they all spoke in French and the dog barked in French!”
Johnson has also traveled to Japan to perform. He was a special ambassador for Mississippi, and helped the state gain a Nissan car factory.
“I serenaded the Prime Minister with my cigar box guitar. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world.”
Soon the deal was signed, and the factory was built in Jackson.
Johnson asked, “Don’t I get a new car, or truck or something like that? They told me ‘Don’t worry Chikan we got a Toyota plant coming later on.’ The story of my life (Johnson laughs), nothing from nothing!”
At the time of this interview Johnson was preparing to head overseas. He is once again an ambassador for Mississippi, for the unveiling of a new Mississippi blues trail marker in Liverpool, England. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any plans to go back into the studio at this time. We can enjoy the great albums Super Chikan Johnson has recorded and hope for more music in the near future.
