John Long (blues musician)

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States,[4] and was raised listening to his mother's collection of jazz and R&B record collection.[1] In his teenage years, Long spent time trying to master playing country blues on guitar.[1] He was particularly impressed by the recorded music of Jimmy Reed, Buster Brown, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Junior Parker.[4] In the early 1960s, he formed the Mystics with his brother Claude, and they played rock and roll and R&B, before realising that it was the early blues that most interested them.[1]

In the early 1970s, Long relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where he met Homesick James.[1] James became 'adoptive father', mentor and inspiration to Long.[5] In the middle part of that decade, Long was heard performing by Muddy Waters.[1] He stated that Long was "the best young country blues artist playing today."[2] Long continued to perform as time allowed, but did not record any material until 1999, when Long on Blues was issued on cassette by Bottleneck Records.[1] Eventually a demo tape of Long's work was sent to Delta Groove Productions, where he was later signed to the record label. Lost & Found was released by Delta Groove in 2006.[1] AllMusic commented on the record that Long "re-created the sound of a pre-war country blues player, right down to the little Tommy Johnson-like upward vocal swoops he takes at the end of phrases."[6] Long was effectively a 'newcomer' at the age of 59, with one commentator noting "his singing is eerie and haunting, sounding as close to a 1930s recording as any country blues player... While he sounds like the old masters, he performs exciting and original material."[7] Lost & Found won a Blues Music Award in the 'Acoustic Album' category.[5]

By this time Long was living in Springfield, Missouri.[5] Despite the acclaim of his work, Long did not record another album for a decade. In May 2016, Stand Your Ground was released by Delta Groove.[1] For instrumentation, Long added to his normal wooden resonator guitar, by also using a Washburn Montgomery archtop guitar, which he styled as "amplified acoustic."[5] Long wrote eight of the thirteen tracks on Stand Your Ground, and it was recorded in two days at Audiogrand in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.[8] The cover numbers included Homesick James's "Baby Please Set a Date," and Blind Willie McTell's "Climbing High Mountains."[5] In addition he recorded a version of Blind Willie Johnson's, "I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole, " plus a slow tempo rendition of Thomas A. Dorsey's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand."[8] In 2017, Long was again a nominee for a Blues Music Award in the 'Acoustic Album' category.[3][4]

[9]

• List of country blues musicians
• List of blues musicians

• Official website
• Video of Long performing