Johnny Adams was an R&B Singer from New Orleans. If you put him up against, let's say, Al Green...I don't know who would come out on top, but I do know this: There is no justice in the Music Business. It's about who you know...it's about what you do...it's about timing and changing times...It's about finding the right producer...signing the right contract...It's about a million things that you probably aren't aware of, because your primary goal love in life and is just singing and performing...entertaining folks. So, since this is about a musician, before you read any further I suggest you follow this link to a youtube clip of Johnny singing on of his early hits, "I Can't Be All Bad":
http://www.youtube.com/...
This is about Johnny Adams. And as much as I like Al Green, I'll take my Johnny Adams' records to that storied desert island. As Crashing Vor said in my Doc Pomus diary...Johnny Adams had the smoothest voice of the 20'th century. That's a lot of smooth voices. Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Marvyn Gaye, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson ,Teddy Pendergrast...to name just a few.
Unlike the singers I just mentioned, Johnny never really hit the Big Time. He had the talent...but the stars never quite aligned for him during most of his career. That's the way the music business works. The same thing happened for Bobby "Blue" Bland...the subject of my next diary.
He could sing the shit out of any song he took on. They called him the "Tan Canary" because his octave range was so wide...he could hit low notes, he could sing falsetto. He could sing. He languished for most of his career as a local act in New Orleans, though he toured extensively throughout the South on what was called the "Chittlin Circuit."
There were plently of other artists who worked the same circuit, who eventually did make the big time. Johhny Adams never quite did. BB King, Count Basie, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Etta James...even comedians like Richard Pryor and Bernie Mac all started their careers touring endlessly this circuit of clubs throughout the South and parts of the Northeast that catered to Black artists in the age of Segregation. The venues ran the gamut from small town clubs to places like the The Apollo Theater in NYC, Club DeLisa in Chicago, or the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia.
Johnny worked these clubs for more than 20 years from 1960 through the end of the Seventies. Born in 1932, he had his first regional hit in 1959. He started singing years before, but sang mostly with gospel groups in the New Orleans area. He honed his vocal skills singing in the Church, but finally was persuaded to make the switch to R&B. He could sing just about anything, though...straight Blues, Jazz, the Standards.
His first hit was produced by an 18 year old fellow New Orleanian by the name of Mac Rebennac, better known as Dr John, on the local record label Ric Records. Johnny was already 11 years older than Mac, and Ric was only the first of a number of local record labels he signed contracts with that didn't really have the expertise, talent or distribution muscle to market him properly. It was until Johnny signed a contract in 1983 with Rounder Records, when he was 51 years old, that his career started to hit an upward trajectory, and he began to garner the acclaim and admiration he deserved.
We've all heard the old adage "The cream rises to the top." Some of us may even believe it. That would be those of us who never tried to make our mark in the Music Industry. In the Music Biz, the cream sometimes rises to the top. More often than not it just goes nowhere. I'll bet everyone reading this diary who lives in a city of 50,000 or more can think of some local musician whom you've seen, enjoyed, danced to, maybe even raved about. I know I can think of several. They never get tapped on the shoulder...taken under the wing...given the Big Break. They blaze for a few years in local acclaim and otherwise oblivion...and eventually find "real jobs."
That didn't happen to Johnny Adams...he stuck to his dream and pursued his talent. But he did so mostly unnoticed outside of his native New Orleans, at least until late in his life. Which is a perfect cue for this song from his album of cover versions of Doc Pomus songs: "There's Always One More Time". If this song doesn't move you...you are immovable.
http://www.youtube.com/...
As I mentioned, Johnny began his singing career in gospel music. One day his upstairs neighbor, another singer of New Orleans fame, a lady by the name of Dorothy Lebostrie, heard him singing the Gospel tune "Precious Lord" while taking a bath. She was impressed enough by his bathtub vocals to approach him and suggest he switch to secular music. It shouldn't surprise anyone that knows anything about the music biz that she had just the song for him to cut his teeth on. It was one of hers. It was entitled "Oh Why"...and later to "I won't Cry." It was Dorothy who steered him to Ric Records. Her name will pop up later, as they maintained a long lasting professional relationship.
We lost Johnny to colon cancer in 1998. That same year, Rounder Records released his album "Man of My Word." It's a gorgeous album. There was a time when anything Rounder Records released, regardless of whether or not you had ever heard of the artist, was a pretty safe buy. You knew you'd be treated to some good music. It's a shame it took Johnny so long to hook up with them.
After his first contract with Joe Ruffino's Ric Records, and his initial regional success in New Orleans and other southern markets, Johnny caught the eye of Barry Gordy at Motown, who approached him and wanted to sign him. Ruffino threatened to sue Gordy, and the deal fell through. Less than a year later, Ruffino died, and Ric and Ron (the sister label, which also had Irma Thomas on its roster) went belly up. I haven't been able to decipher why Gordy didn't pursue Adams for the Motown label after the demise of Ric Records, and the death of its owner Joe Ruffino. But one can only imagine the possibilities of Johnny Adams backed up by the Funk Brothers, with proper production and distribution muscle.
For the rest of the Sixties, Adams floated around from one label to another. None of them did right by him. In music...the artist brings his game to the studio, and the producer brings his...in the case of a song stylist like Adams, song selection and arrangement matters a lot in the final product. I think he got bad advice along a lot of his career. He did a stint with SSS International Records, based in Nashville. Ray Charles had had a string of Country hits, and Adams seemed to fit that mold. In fact, he was always something of an anachronism...a classic blues and R&B singer, with gospel tinges, in a pop culture that had turned away from gospel, pure blues, sophisticated jazz phrasing and soul music that wasn't up-tempo rythym based. Adams still mostly languished in the local New Orleans market, if you can call being recognized and admired by your peers in a city such as NO languishing.
It was during this time of bouncing between labels that Adams landed with another storied New Orleans record label briefly...Watch Records, led by producer/arranger Wardell Quezerque. Together, they reworked the Ray Price C&W classic "Release Me", and Adams had another minor hit. It reached #34 on the R&B Charts, and #82 on the pop charts. Listen to his falsetto on this country classic, and move aside Ray Price:
http://www.youtube.com/...
By the late '70's, Adams was still bouncing around between small, local labels...never able to find a real home. On weekends he sang locally in New Orleans at Dorothy Lebostrie's club Medallion Lounge with guitarist Walter "Wolfman" Washington.
In 1983 Rounder Records signed Johnny Adams to a contract, and he recorded a string of some nine records that finally had the production quality and attention to arrangement that befitted his talent. His career took off slowly, and gained some momentum. He started getting national attention and airplay that had largely escaped him during most of his career. He toured abroad, and European audiences adored his vocal style.
The last 16 years of Johnny's life were probably the best for him. He finally found a record company that wasn't just trying to make a fast buck off of him, and actually helped him focus his talent and then carry his artistry beyond the confines of New Orleans. He died at the peak of a long, long career.
The New York Times' Peter Watrous wrote of Johnny in the newspaper's obit:
until Adams signed with Rounder Records in 1983, he worked in unfair obscurity. His singing had a cool sense of relaxation and a ceaseless caressing of notes. He attacked and ornamented melodies in endless ways, either leaving them plain, so the luxury of his voice did the work, or charging them with falsettos and other gospel filigrees. But by the time Adams's abilities had come together, jazz and sophisticated blues singing weren't much in demand.
Another writer recalled, upon his passing, that
New Orleans native Johnny Adams was another less celebrated singer who had a firm grasp on the dramatic possibilities of soul music. Early on, he earned the evocative sobriquet of "The Tan Canary" due to his powerful delivery, multi-octave range, swooping vocal mannerisms, and what one wag described as "his death-defying falsetto." Johnny Adams once said, "They got a whole lot of New Orleans music. I try to make mine different." Consequently, Adams' smooth style and vaudevillian stage demeanor contrasted sharply with the casual cacophony de rigeur on New Orleans sessions of the day.
His last album, "Man of My Word", was released the year he passed away. I'll leave you with my very favorite Adams song: "Looking Back". well...maybe not. Note...I just searched youtube, and amazingly I cannot find a rendition of "Looking Back" there...go to Itunes and play the preview...I'm begging you.