Super Chikan & Terry Harmonica Bean – From Hill Country Blues To Mississippi Delta Blues

Track Listing:
Super Chikan: 1 . Tin Top Shak - 5.31   2. Down In The Mississippi Delta (Tribute To Muddy and Elmore) - 5.11   3. Wavy Toughts - 5.39   Terry “Harmonica” Bean: 4. Leaving Blues - 4.49   5. Boogie With Me - 2.59   Super Chikan: 6. Tribute To Jimmy Reed - 3.52   7. Poor Broke Boy - 3.57   Terry “Harmonica” Bean: 8. Who Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I’m Gone - 2.50   9. Mississippi Walking Blues - 2.14   Super Chikan: 10. “Sippi Seekan“ Saw - 4.52   Terry “Harmonica” Bean: 11. Black Cat Bone - 3.42   Super Chikan: 12. Fred’s Dollar Store - 5.49   13. Hug Me, Don’t Bug me (Drugs Is Already Bugging Me) - 5.05   Terry “Harmonica” Bean: 14. I Got Love If You Want It - 2.49   15. 2018 – Doin My Own Thing - 2.33

Bio:

JAMES “SUPER CHIKAN” JOHNSON
James “Super Chikan” Johnson was born in the small Delta community of Darling in 1951 and grew up in rural towns around the area. As a young boy living in the country, he developed an interest in his family’s chickens and spent time trying to understand the meaning of the noises they made. His friends and family soon began calling him “the old chicken boy” or “Chicken” for short. He received the other half of his moniker during a stint working as a taxi driver in Clarksdale. His speedy driving earned him the new nickname “Super Chikan.”
One of eleven children, Johnson came from a musical family. His grandfather, Ellis Johnson, played the fiddle in local string bands and one of his uncles, “Big” Jack Johnson, is an internationally known blues musician. Johnson’s first musical efforts came through building and playing a diddly bo, a one string instrument popular among Delta blues musicians. When he was 13 he got a used guitar and was taught the basics of the instrument by friends and family members. By the time he was in his early 20s, he was playing bass in local clubs with his Uncle Jack’s band. Johnson went on to play bass and guitar for a number of Delta blues bandleaders, including Frank Frost, Ernest Roy, Sr., Sam Carr, and Wesley Jefferson.
Later on, while working as a truck driver, Johnson used the time while on the road to write his own songs. He recorded his first album as a bandleader, Blues Come Home to Roost, in 1997. On the recording, Johnson first showcased his ability to meld the blues with a number of different musical styles, including country, funk, and rock. His lyrics also came from a unique perspective, providing both humorous and serious views of contemporary life in the Delta. The record captivated the critics and blues audiences, earning him awards for Best Blues Album and Best Debut Album from the 1998 Living Blues Magazine Awards.
Since the success of his first record, Johnson has been busy performing solo and with his band, The Fighting Cocks, at festivals and clubs throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has also continued to release recordings at a steady pace. His most recent CD, Chikan Supe, was released in 2005 on Clarksdale, Mississippi’s Knockdown South Records.
In recent years, Johnson has also become known as a visual artist. Taking lessons learned from his grandfather, who built instruments and made fishing lures, he began building his own guitars and other instruments. Johnson combined discarded guitar parts with old Army gas cans, creating “Chikantars,” fully playable guitars that he now plays at many of his performances. He also makes cigar box guitars, diddly bos, and other one-of-a-kind instruments. Johnson hand paints each of his instruments, decorating them with detailed scenes of the Delta. The instruments have become highly prized by collectors throughout the south. In 2005 he received an Artist Fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission in order to support this part of his artistic career.
Despite his international travel, Johnson remains dedicated to his home region and state. He still performs in Clarksdale clubs on a regular basis and is a constant presence at music festivals around Mississippi. The state has recognized Johnson’s high level of artistry. In 2004, he was a recipient of Mississippi’s Governors Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2006, he was a featured performer for the Library of Congress’s “Homegrown” series and also performed at the Kennedy Center as part of their Millennium Stage series.
written by https://arts.ms.gov/folklife/artist.php?dirname=johnson_james

TERRY “HARMONICA” BEAN
Bean was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, United States, where he has remained living to date. His father, Eddie Bean, was a blues guitarist who played in an electric blues band, and encouraged his son to play both harmonica and guitar. A sharecropper, he also enlisted his twenty four children in assisting in picking cotton to earn a living. Terry Bean played for his school and in American Legion baseball, before two traffic accidents meant that his competitive career finished in his early twenties. In 1988, Bean saw Robert Lockwood, Jr. play at a music festival in Greenville, Mississippi, and this experience inspired Bean to perform regularly in and around Greensville for the next few years. Bean became more versatile, appearing as a one-man band, accompanist or band leader and he variously worked with T-Model Ford, Asie Payton and Lonnie Pitchford.
Bean’s first solo recording, Here I Am Baby, was released in 2001. This has been followed by six more albums, using a variety of musical ensemble settings.
He plays both harmonica and guitar, occasionally at the same time, and has performed at blues festivals, and in juke joints, to supplement his regular income gained from working in a furniture factory in Pontotoc. Playing solo, or with his own blues ensemble, Bean also made an appearance as himself in the 2008 documentary film, M For Mississippi, making mention of his daytime employment. Four years later Bean had a part in the film’s follow-up, We Juke Up In Here, where he notes the decline in the number of performance outlets, such as juke joints. Bean has been a regular performer at the Briggs Farm Blues Festival in Pennsylvania, appearing in 2005, 2010 and 2011.
Bean played harmonica on T-Model Ford’s 2008 album, Jack Daniel Time.
In 2011, Bean toured Italy, played in concert in France in March 2013, and made a more comprehensive European tour in 2013, whilst sticking to performing in a traditional blues style. His most recent album, Catfish Blues, was issued by the Austrian-based Wolf Records in March 2014. One music journalist commented “On Catfish Blues, Terry “Harmonica” Bean delivers a pitch perfect hill country experience that can be enjoyed from the smoky haze of the barroom to the quiet desks of the archives.”
He also was on the bill of the Muddy Roots Festival in August 2014. Bean is currently appearing in the television series, Moonshine & Mojo Hands.
written by https://www.thebluestrain.com.au/artist/terry-harmonica-bean