Before becoming a mainstay in Chicago blues, Johnny Shines hoboed with Robert Johnson through Depression-era America. They hopped freights together, played on street corners, shared rooms and whiskey, and made it as far north as Canada. Johnson passed away in 1938, and for the next half-century, his spirit seemed to haunt the music of Johnny Shines. It echoed in his turnarounds, mournful bottleneck slides, impassioned lyrics, and falsetto moans. At clubs and house parties, Shines was just as likely to launch into Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues,” “Terraplane Blues,” and “Sweet Home Chicago” as he was his own “Evil-Hearted Woman Blues,” “A Little Tenderness,” and “Evening Sun.”
Raised in Tennessee and Arkansas, Shines took up guitar in 1932 and within three years began his celebrated rambles with Johnson. Shines moved to Chicago in 1941, amplified his guitar, and staked Frost’s Corner as his home turf. He played Tom’s Tavern for many years with pianist Sunnyland Slim. His first recordings, four 1946 OKeh sides, remained unissued for a quarter-century. In fact, bad luck seemed to dog Johnny’s recording career the whole time he lived in Chicago. In the early 1950s he pawned his guitar and quit music altogether. He wasn’t persuaded back into the studios for another dozen years. During the 1970s, though, Shines became a blues celebrity, touring America and Europe and recording for Biograph, Testament, Flyright, Advent, Rounder, and other labels.
A kind, intelligent man with penetrating eyes and a subtle wit, Johnny moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1969. A 1980 stroke slowed his fretting hand, but his powerful voice remained remarkably similar to his earliest records, echoing the deep Delta blues of a bygone era. He was 73 when our interview took place in a Watsonville, California, farmhouse on January 23, 1989. As you'll hear, about ten minutes into the interview I handed Johnny a photograph of Robert Johnson, which had just recently been made public. He thanked me for it several times, stared at it awhile, and confirmed that this was, in fact, a photo of the man he knew. A transcription of our wide-ranging conversation was published in the March/April ’90 issue of Living Blues. Johnny passed away two years later on April 20, 1992.
I hope you enjoy this unique recording, and be sure to check out the other historic interviews on the Talking Guitar YouTube channel. To help us continue producing podcasts, please hit that donate button and send some cheer our way: https://paypal.me/TalkingGuitar.
Thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the original master tape. For more guitar-intensive podcasts and access to more than 75 articles, visit Talking Guitar magazine at https://jasobrecht.substack.com/. You can also support the Talking Guitar project with a one-time donation: https://paypal.me/TalkingGuitar.
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