Whitey Johnson – More Days Like This

(Blue Corn Music, 2019)

 

Whitey Johnson was born when Gary Nicholson wrote a short story about an amazing guitar player he saw perform at a fair in his hometown of Garland, Texas. This guitarist, who covered everyone from BB King to Jimi Hendrix, was a black albino and his family called him Whitey. At the end of the story Whitey dies when a church is burned by the Klan. Now when Nicholson performs as Whitey he invokes the spirit of the blues music he has loved all his life. With deepest respect for all the great founding fathers of the blues, and songs that reflect his own unique point of view, Whitey Johnson lives on.

 

Personnel:

• Gary Nicholson - guitar, vocals

• Colin Linden - guitar, backing vocals on 4 

• Lynn Williams - drums 

• Mike Joyce - bass

• Dennis Wage -piano and organ

• Kevin McKendree - piano and organ

• Dana Robbins - saxophones

• Quentin Ware  - coronet, bugle

• Delbert McClinton - harmonica on track 8

• The McCrary Sisters (Regina, Ann, Freda) - backing vocals on 1,7

• Jason Eskridge - backing vocals on 5, 6, 9

• Jimmy Hall - backing vocals on 3

• Perry Coleman - backing vocals on 2

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Songs by Gary Nicholson except for "More Days Like This," co-written with Seth Walker; "Starting A Rumor," co-written with Delbert McClinton and Guy Clark; "If It's Really Gotta Be This Way," co-written with Arthur Alexander and Donnie Fritts; "The Blues Is Alive and Well," co-written with Tom Hambridge; "Skin Deep," co-written with Tom Hambridge; "Upside of Lonely," co-written with Tom Hambridge and Jimmy Thackery; "High Time," co-written with Seth Walker

 

Extra thanks to Blackbird Academy and Whitey's Fren Colin Linden

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Cover painting by Lamar Sorrento

Photography by Jim Shea

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