Shirley Johnson

Shirley Johnson's path into music followed the route taken by countless African-American singers who began performing in church before shifting toward non-religious material. Now based in Chicago, the vocalist whose listening preferences stretch from Mahalia Jackson through Koko Taylor, Etta James, and Ruth Brown delivers blues with a powerful, rough-hewn voice yet remains equally comfortable with soul and gospel. Although she has lived much of her adult life in the Windy City, Johnson was born in Franklin, Virginia, on June 7, 1949, and grew up in Norfolk. Her deeply religious household placed her in a church choir at age six, where she sang gospel exclusively. In that strict environment her relatives viewed blues and R&B as inappropriate, yet young Johnson still absorbed secular Black music and developed strong admiration for Brown, James, Taylor, and male performers such as B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton, and the late Z.Z. Hill. Because none of those artists confined themselves to a single style—James being first and foremost a soul singer who frequently moved into blues territory—Johnson came to understand how closely blues and classic soul are often linked. Once she reached adulthood in the late 1970s, she could openly work in secular music, quickly establishing herself in Norfolk’s blues and R&B scene and serving as an opening act for Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Z.Z. Hill, and other visiting headliners. During the early 1980s she cut singles for a pair of regional Virginia labels; the sides drew interest from a prospective Chicago label owner who offered her a plane ticket, only to admit upon her arrival that he lacked funds for a recording session. Johnson nevertheless stayed in Chicago and became a steady presence on the local blues circuit, performing both blues and soul while collaborating with Little Johnny Christian, Artie "Blues Boy" White, and keyboardist Eddie Lusk, the last of whom took her on international tours. The 1990s brought several releases on the Appaloosa label, among them the 1996 album Looking for Love. In the early 2000s she joined the Chicago imprint Delmark, which issued Killer Diller in May 2002 and Blues Attack in 2009.