Biography
Despite possessing extraordinary command over the slide guitar, John Littlejohn never ascended to prominence among the leading figures in blues. The veteran Chicago performer's ferocious bottleneck technique received proper documentation on record in only isolated instances, yet anyone who caught one of his nocturnal appearances as an invited performer across the Windy City club circuit retained vivid memories of the raw intensity conveyed in his phrasing. Delta-raised John Funchess encountered the blues for the first time shortly before turning thirteen, during a fish fry where Henry Martin, an acquaintance of his father's, performed on guitar. Departing home in 1946, he stopped successively in Jackson, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Rochester, New York before settling in Gary, Indiana. Beginning in 1951 he gradually entered the local blues environment there, his approach shaped by Elmore James proving popular throughout Chicago's southern outskirts as well as in the steel-mill-dominated city of Gary itself.
An extended interval passed before Littlejohn committed his initial singles to tape for the Margaret imprint—featuring his signature reading of Brook Benton's "Kiddio"—along with T-D-S and Weis in 1968. Still within that same year he also recorded his first full-length release, Chicago Blues Stars, issued on Chris Strachwitz's Arhoolie label. The album stood as a striking introduction, showcasing the guitarist unleashing a fierce Chicago/Delta fusion anchored in the sensibilities of the early 1950s instead of its own era. Regrettably, a four-song session for Chess in 1969 went unreleased. A further prolonged gap followed until the appearance of his 1985 Rooster Blues album So-Called Friends, an expansive yet uneven project pairing the guitarist with an oversized horn section that occasionally expanded to eight members. Littlejohn had already been contending with declining health for an extended period before his death in 1994.
An extended interval passed before Littlejohn committed his initial singles to tape for the Margaret imprint—featuring his signature reading of Brook Benton's "Kiddio"—along with T-D-S and Weis in 1968. Still within that same year he also recorded his first full-length release, Chicago Blues Stars, issued on Chris Strachwitz's Arhoolie label. The album stood as a striking introduction, showcasing the guitarist unleashing a fierce Chicago/Delta fusion anchored in the sensibilities of the early 1950s instead of its own era. Regrettably, a four-song session for Chess in 1969 went unreleased. A further prolonged gap followed until the appearance of his 1985 Rooster Blues album So-Called Friends, an expansive yet uneven project pairing the guitarist with an oversized horn section that occasionally expanded to eight members. Littlejohn had already been contending with declining health for an extended period before his death in 1994.
Albums
