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+--- Thread: How a Blues guy reinvents himself (/showthread.php?tid=12378)
How a Blues guy reinvents himself - jazzboCR - 06-01-2015
Johnny "Guitar" Watson was a good mid-level Houston, TX, Bluesman in the '50's and '60's...then along came funk. Mr. Watson, unlike his contemporaries, embraced this new style, mastered it and became a very copied/sampled artist. They stayed on the sidelines, stayed in the clubs; he played the Big Houses. Ron Weinstock's blog article on JW's 2-CD anthology led me here: http://inabluemood.blogspot.com/2012/08/johnny-guitar-watson-funk-anthology. Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_%22Guitar%22_Watson << He was both the frontman/showman AND lead guitarist. Discog: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-guitar-watson-mn0000242511/discography << His comps should do you well; for a full taste of his late career show, check that Charly DVD: http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-in-concert-mw0001613298 << about $14 new from the Usual Suspect.
Some tunes--early and late:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQFPVhBKp34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3FVj-_gMRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3AcCnAp-uw << Quite right on piano too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO3uBxGWxXA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSBo1pmXvuw << Is this baddest version ever? He's entitled--he wrote it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z-hKprKdII << Talks it straight up--more true now than then, what with increasing economic inequality and all.
BONUS: concert in Germany in '77: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlgOVmLfNnU << He always had a killer horn line