Mean Old Bed Bug Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Higginbotham
Roaming Ramble Blues
Stay Out of Walnut Street Alley
St. Louis Cyclone Blues
Bedbug Blues, Pt. 2
Garter Snake Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Spivey
6/88 Glide
Life Saver Blues
I'm Not Rough - Lonnie Johnson, Armstrong, Louis
Sweet Potato Blues
Hotter Than That - Lonnie Johnson, Hardin
Savoy Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Ory
Playing With the Strings
Stompin' Em Along Now
Track Listings (22) - Disc #2
Deep Blue Sea Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Alexander
No More Women Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Alexander
I'm So Tired of Living All Alone
Crowing Rooster Blues
Broken Levee Blues
Careless Love - Lonnie Johnson, Handy, W.C.
Toothache Blues, Pts. 1-2 - Lonnie Johnson, Jefferson
Misty Mornin' - Lonnie Johnson, Ellington
Two Tone Stomp
Have to Change Keys to Play These Blues
It Feels So Good, Pts. 1-2
Jet Black Blues
Guitar Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Johnson, Lonnie
Blue Guitars
Bullfrog Moan
Sundown Blues
The New Fallin' Rain Blues
You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now, Pts. 1-2
Hot Fingers
Blue Room
She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight
Another Woman Booked Out and Bound to Go
Track Listings (23) - Disc #3
I Got the Best Jelly Roll in Town, Pts. 1-2
The Dirty Dozen
I Just Can't Stand These Blues
Deep Sea Blues
Long Black Train
I Have to Do My Time
No More Troubles Now
You're Getting Old On Your Job
Don't Wear It Out
Got the Blues for Murder Only
Let All Married Women Alone
Beautiful But Dumb
Sleepy Water Blues
Uncle Red, Don't Use Your Head
I'm Nuts About That Gal
Racketeers Blues
Swing Out Rhythm
Why Women Go Wrong
Jersey Belle Blues
The Loveless Blues
I'm Just Dumb
Get Yourself Together
Crowing Rooster Blues
Track Listings (26) - Disc #4
That's Love
Lazy Woman Blues
In Love Again
He's a Jelly Roll Baker
When You Feel Low Down
The Victim of Love
Watch Shorty
Keep What You Got
Love Is the Answer
Tomorrow Night - Lonnie Johnson, Coslow
What a Real Woman
Falling Rain Blues
Working Man's Blues
Playing Around
Trouble Ain't Nothing But the Blues - Lonnie Johnson, Bernard
Blues Stay Away from Me - Lonnie Johnson, Delmore
Little Rockin' Chair
Nothing But Trouble
Why Should I Cry
It Was All in Vain
You Only Want Me When You're Lonely
Me and My Crazy Self - Lonnie Johnson, Glover
I'm Guilty
Just Another Day
You Can't Buy Love
Can't Sleep Any More
One of the Most Influential and Original Blues Musicians, Lonnie Johnson Virtually Created the Modern Blues Guitar Style on his Own, Sending the Music off in the Direction it Has Subsequently Taken. Combining Elements of J... more »azz Into his Technique Meant that He Blurred the Boundaries Between the Two Emerging Musics During the '30s, Later Slipping Out of Music Only to Return as an Elder Statesman in the 1960s. This Lavishly Presented Four CD Set Takes in all of the Recordings Made Between 1928 and 1952 that Created a Blues Legend and also Includes Comprehensive Liner Notes and a Full Discography.« less
One of the Most Influential and Original Blues Musicians, Lonnie Johnson Virtually Created the Modern Blues Guitar Style on his Own, Sending the Music off in the Direction it Has Subsequently Taken. Combining Elements of Jazz Into his Technique Meant that He Blurred the Boundaries Between the Two Emerging Musics During the '30s, Later Slipping Out of Music Only to Return as an Elder Statesman in the 1960s. This Lavishly Presented Four CD Set Takes in all of the Recordings Made Between 1928 and 1952 that Created a Blues Legend and also Includes Comprehensive Liner Notes and a Full Discography.
CD Reviews
The first guitar hero!
M. Storløkken | Norway | 01/03/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"B.B King, Albert King, Clapton, Vaughn, Green and Taylor were all guitar playing heroes of our youth. Naturally, they were really great pickers, no doubt about that! But the way I see it, this man, Lonnie Johnson, was the first and the greatest guitar hero ever! For five decades he entertained and pleased people with his mellow, emotionally charged voice and his unrivalled guitar playing. From country blues to jazz - he was equally at ease with a vast variety of music. His playing was always technically impressive (sometimes nearly insurmountable), touchingly melodic and with an inexhaustible well of ideas. Some of his solo instrumentals are not really possible to redo, and his duos with Eddie Lang surely belong to the highest class of American music. If I were to take only one single item with me to a deserted island (hopefully the area would have electricity), this CD box would be the one!"
A True Pioneer
D. B Pepper | Plainview, NY United States | 06/18/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the perfect box set. The liner notes are great, the packaging is fine, and the music contained on these discs is simply stunning. Lonnie's work with Texas Alexander doesn't sound like anything else committed to record. "Section Gang Blues" and "Levee Camp Moan" are startling in their intensity. His guitar duets with Eddie Lang will never lose their novelty, because they are music on the level of the Classical music of Europe. "Away Down in The Alley Blues" and "Hot Fingers" are mind-boggling. Lonnie's Blues lyrics are original and greatly detailed. He is the master of romantic balladry. He is a pioneer in Rhythm & Blues. He knows how to use double-entendre, and he certainly seems to have a true distrust of women!"
Lonnie Johnson....a BADMAN...and BAD IS GOOD!
S. A. Haugh | Minneapolis, MN | 01/21/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lonnie Johnson was a musical master.
His guitar style is so clean and rythmic it is a standard that many try to reach, but few do reach it.
If you have never heard Lonnie Johnson, you are are missing a large piece of the "musical pie".
Lonnie Johnson covers sooooooo many bases, he has been, in my opinon over looked at times. Example...the blues, if you know/like/play or listen to the blues, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson (I & II), Charlie Patton and Son House are names you know well. Lonnie Johnson fit right in with them. But Lonnie Johnson was more....much more.
Another example....jazz, do the name Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington ring a bell? Both GIANTS of jazz, Lonnie fits right in, he played with both of them. But he played more than jazz.
Lonnie Johnson maybe the best and maybe the first "crossover" musician. Can you picture Son House of Charlie Patten playing with Duke!
If you are into guitar playing, names like Robert Johnson, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Chet Atkins, T-Bone Walker & Gatemouth Brown...all MONSTERS on the guitar. Lonnie fits right in.
Enough about why you should give Lonnie Johnson a listen, now about this 4 disc set.
Nice package. Nice cover art.
4 disc set in chronological order (for the most part).
This set may not please the "audiophile" because a few of the early tracks were somewhat poorly recorded, it was the 1920's....I mean, come on!
The early tracks can only be cleaned up so much before they lose the integrity of the music.
Each of the 4 disc set has is own cover.
Each disc has a nice cover shot of Lonnie.
Each disc has complete track listings.
The set has a 40+ page booklet w/facts, photos and more. VERY NICE!
While this may have more in it then the first time Lonnie Johnson listener may find necessary (95 tracks), the LOW cost and the excellent packaging make this a "no brainer".
If you are already a Lonnie Johnson fan, this is still a "no brainer".
It has some tracks you have on some of his other cd's, but you get the whole package with excellent graphic and packaging.
If you want to hear a true master of music, blues, jazz, standars etc.
If you want to hear a true master of the guitar and a gifted singer (I love his vibrato!). You should try this box set and find out what you have been missing.
This box set is an A+.
"
Top rate overview of Lonnie Johnson through 1952
W. Hoekstra | Iowa | 04/11/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Although to many, like myself, Lonnie Johnson's blues numbers are of primary interest--and to others his pioneering jazz instrumentals are of equal or greater interest--he also did ballads, duets, and hokum pieces.This four CD set provides examples of all of these types of music that Johnson was associated with, and how he excelled at all of them. Likewise, Johnson was an exceptional and highly influential guitarist, but also more than competent at his secondary instruments like the violin and the piano. While rightly centering on his guitar playing, this boxset also gives good examples of Johnson playing the violin, piano, and banjo. As such, it complements the comprehensive series of Document records CDs, and provides guidance to which discs from that series one might want to buy."
This Is It!
M. Brust | Denton, TX United States | 01/25/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The best, cheapest, most comprehensive collection of the material that created the legend. Pure genius."