J.B. Hutto stood alongside Hound Dog Taylor as one of the final major slide guitar followers of Elmore James to reach the contemporary era. His powerful vocals, often muddled enunciation, and ferocious slash-and-burn technique delivered Chicago blues with an unmatched intensity and untamed character. Music first drew him in back in Augusta, Georgia, where he performed with the family gospel outfit known as the Golden Crowns Gospel Singers. In the mid-1940s he moved north to Chicago, where he taught himself guitar and secured his initial paid engagement as a member of Johnny Ferguson & His Twisters. His recording debut arrived in 1954 through a pair of Chance label sessions backed by his original group the Hawks—George Mayweather on harmonica, Porkchop Hines on washboard traps, and Joe Custom on rhythm guitar—yielding six of nine tracks released as singles that drew little notice. Following the original band’s dissolution, he spent roughly a decade away from music, including time cleaning a funeral parlor. Around 1964 he reemerged with a leaner Hawks lineup limited to two guitars and drums without bass, maintaining steady appearances at Turner’s Blue Lounge while cutting fresh material after several years’ absence.
Thereafter he committed fully once more to life as a working blues musician. Over the ensuing twelve years he performed and recorded with assorted iterations of groups always called the Hawks, incorporating electric bass for the first time and issuing sides on independent labels in both the United States and abroad. Following the 1976 death of fellow slide player Hound Dog Taylor, J.B. took over his backup unit, the Houserockers. Though never captured in a studio setting, this brief alliance with guitarist Brewer Phillips and drummer Ted Harvey generated live performances that could swing from smoldering focus to total disorder within a single set. Within a year he relocated to Boston, assembling a new mixed ensemble billed as the New Hawks and maintaining an active schedule of recording and touring across America and Europe until his passing in the mid-1980s. Onstage he proved an electrifying presence, appearing in hot pink suits topped by anything from a shriner’s fez to high-plains drifters’ hats while threading through audiences and dancing atop tables with his 50-foot guitar cord fully extended. The same buoyant spirit infused his recordings, imparting a relaxed barroom atmosphere to nearly every track irrespective of the supporting musicians.
