Kitty Lange Kielland: Evening Landscape from Stokkavannet (1890)
Good evening, Kibitzers!
This is a week I have been trying to pretend wasn’t coming, in which I have a mammogram scheduled tomorrow and a colonoscopy on Friday. Also, it’s going to be miserably hot all week and almost certainly humid. With Canadian wildfire smoke.
On Sunday morning, a distinguished member of the Daily Kos community stopped by the New Day Cafe to announce proudly that it was his 20th Daily Kos anniversary. He went on to say how he well remembered the events of September 10, 2005, when one of those happy accidents caused him to join the site. It was such a good story, I really hated to mention that Sunday was August 10. Now, I am sorry I did. I’d be perfectly happy to skip the rest of August and get a head start on September, thank you!
This week, I’ve been listening to blues guitarist Justin Johnson, and that means you all will, too.
Justin Johnson is originally from the Los Angeles area, spent some time in Seattle growing up, and ended up in North Carolina as a teenager. He attended UNC Wilmington, where he minored in jazz guitar. After college, he spent years as a hired guitarist filling in with bands in every conceivable style, often called in on very short notice and picking up the set list in real time. So when he decided his style was blues, it was blues very much informed by everything else. (That linked article is interesting; it’s an interview on an acoustic blues website, and what they’re getting at is how Justin Johnson created himself as a very successful internet musician, without touring, a record label, or radio airplay.)
So that’s a little background on how he comes to choose songs in other styles and cover them as solo acoustic blues. I picked some that I liked. Links on the name of the original artist are to their version of the song.
Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones) [3:25]
Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple) [4:50]
Turn the Page (Bob Seeger) [5:19]
What'd I Say (Ray Charles) [3:19]
Mississippi Queen (Mountain) [3:10]
Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top) [3:13]
When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin) [5:30]
Cold Shot (Stevie Ray Vaughan) [3:15]
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads) [3:00]
Come Together (Beatles) [3:46]
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Beatles) [7:26]
Uptown Funk (Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars) [5:15]
At Last (Etta James) [3:59]
I find that I cannot post someone playing Etta James on the guitar without adding a shout-out to lovely Daily Kos user Little Bozo, who played guitar with her for many years. (See his story about it here.) Mr. Bozo is seen here setting fire to a red Les Paul at Montreaux in 1989. [5:02]
