By Lyons Bluesologist, David McIntyre
Johnny Sansone left his native West Orange, New Jersey, in 1975 at age 17 to attend college in Colorado on a swimming scholarship. He began playing harmonica at age 13, also accompanying himself on guitar. “I was trying to be Jimmie
Reed in our basement,” he recalled in a 1997 interview. Sansone’s father was a professional saxophonist who played with various jazz groups on the Newark, club scene. Sansone lived in Colorado, Texas, Massachusetts, and North Carolina before moving to New Orleans in 1990. The whole time, he led regional touring bands, notably Jumpin’ Johnny & The Blues Party.
Sansone is no spring chicken when it comes to getting out on the road and supporting his independently released records. In 1987, Sansone and his former band recorded an album, “Where Y’at?,” for the Kingsnake label. Jumpin’ Johnny & the Blues Party also recorded and released “Mister Good Thing” for the Atlanta based Ichiban label in 1991.Johnny began playing accordion after attending Clifton Chenier’s funeral, and Sansone said that some people assume he is a zydeco musician when they see him carrying it into a club. His album “Crescent City Moon” (1997, Bullseye Blues) received rave reviews from around the country. The album fuses Chicago Blues, swamp boogie, and lyrical images of New Orleans and the bayou country of southwest Louisiana. Johnny has won numerous awards in the Crescent City, including Offbeat magazine’s annual “Best of the Beat” competition, where he won four awards after he released “Crescent City Moon.” Sansone won Song of the Year, Best harmonica player, Best blues band and Best album of the year.
Over the years, to get money together for various recording projects, he has worked construction jobs. But since his deal with Rounder’s Bullseye Blues subsidiary, which in addition to “Crescent City Moon” yielded 1999’s “Watermelon Patch,” he has been able to take his artistry to the next level, touring nationally and internationally. “Poorman’s Paradise” was recorded nearly entirely in Johnny’s New Orleans mid-city living room. In fact if you listen closely, you might hear a dog barking, or a nail gun or saw in the background. While the session was indeed spontaneous, Sansone had been waiting to do a session like this for some time. The idea was to get some friends together and take an organic, acoustic approach to keep the session’s down-home feel. The title song is Johnny taking stock of local life after Hurricane Katrina; he points the fingers in the right direction (his insurance company, as well as Bush and Bronwie) and without underlying the point too hard, Sansone makes it clear that the kind of paradise he’s singing about, “where little people suffer and big shots don’t compromise,” isn’t confined to New Orleans.
Blues Revue says Johnny’s latest CD “The Lord Is Waiting And The Devil Is Too” is “equal parts contempt, resignation, and guarded hope, but it’s his mind-blowing harp tone that makes these songs. This is a harp album with dynamic class sure to make many best of the year lists.” Prophetically, the CD is nominated for Album of The Year, Contemporary Male Blues Artist, Contemporary Blues Album, and Song of the Year by the Blues Foundation. Best Blues Artist, Best Blues album and Songwriter of the year by Offbeat magazine and many others. Johnny is making a small tour of Colorado, and I feel privileged to invite you to a free laid back show of this year’s best bluesman Johnny Sansone and his keyboard playing Crescent City partner Tom Worrell at Oskar Blues in Lyons, Thursday night, January 26, from 8 to 10:30 p.m. It will feature some of New Orleans’ best music of the year.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
