Johnny Guitar Watson - Essential Works 1953-1962

A singer/guitarist known for two essential albums in the funk sphere – Ain’t That a Bitch and A Real Mother For You – Johnny Watson was first of all a highly respected bluesman with close ties to the R&B scene of the Fifties. When Johnny Watson’s grandfather died, he left his grandson a guitar, but Grandma insisted that Johnny shouldn’t ever play “the devil’s music” – the blues – on such a “holy” instrument that had accompanied so many gospels… Johnny at once thought about nothing else. In Los Angeles he would spend the Fifties under the influence of Amos Milburn and Chuck Higgins, with whom he played for a time before creating his own group to trawl through every club in the city. “I was doing things like Jimi Hendrix, fifteen years before [him] playing guitar with my teeth, hanging from the rafters and doing double gigs with Guitar Slim … we used to work together in clubs with 30 foot guitarleads, sit on each others shoulders and walk out into the audience”. Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s shows left an indelible mark. He gave each period in his career a personal stamp that made him an original character: he marked every style he played in, whether it was blues, R&B or funk. The first two styles appear on all four sides of this album, leaving the funk for Ain’t That a Bitch and A Real Mother For You.