You can take the chicken out of Mississippi but you can’t take Mississippi out of the chicken.
Thankfully.
Actually it’s “Chikan”–as in James “Super Chikan” Johnson, who has been drawing curious crowds to his old-school sets at the Chicago Blues Festival, which ends Sunday (Johnson plays every day).
Johnson plays a guitar made out of a cigar box (he calls it his “cigarguitar”) and another one made out of an old ceiling fan (since it looks like a banjo with a guitar neck, he calls it his “guijo”); he says he’s sold some custom instruments, including to celebrities. And the 55-year-old native of Clarksdale, Miss., can play, high-stepping around the stage like a manic rooster, yelling “Shoot that thang!” after every song.
He told Armour & Co. he’s just channeling John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, among others.
“That’s all I’m doing,” he said. “I am doing an old thing with a new flavor. It’s like old food with a new flavor.”
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tarmour@tribune.com
Terry Armour co-hosts “The Stan and Terry Show” with Stan Lawrence at 10 a.m. Monday-Friday on WCKG-FM 105.9.
The Personals page was compiled by Cheryl Bowles and Cristi Kempf from Tribune news services and staff reports.
