It's Throwback Thursday, and we're celebrating with the life and music of legendary guitarist, Willie Johnson! Next week... Part 2, and the exciting conclusion.... Blues guitarist Willie Johnson was born in Tate County, Mississippi in 1923. Showing a talent for guitar at an early age, he crossed paths with the Howlin' Wolf in the late 1930s. At the time, Wolf had been playing with Son House and Willie Brown, and everyone agreed the teenager showed promise. Wolf taught the young Willie Johnson what he knew – Wolf had been a student of the great Charley Patton once – and from that point on, the two musicians formed a musical bond that would last the better part of 20 years. By the late 1940s, Wolf and Johnson were playing together in West Memphis, Arkansas, but it was Wolf's appearance over the airwaves of local radio station KWEM that would probably change his life forever. Acting on a tip from a friend one day, Sam Phillips, founder of the legendary Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue, tuned in to hear the Wolf, and immediately sought him out to record him. Soon, the Howlin' Wolf and his guitarist, Willie Johnson, were making records together at Sam's tiny studio. The story doesn't quite end there, however. Due to a handshake understanding that the Bihari brothers had with Sam Phillips, a fight quickly erupted between themselves and the Chess brothers in the Windy City after Phillips sent some of the Wolf's first recordings to Chicago instead of into the waiting hands of the Bihari brothers in Los Angeles. Soon, Joe Bihari was in West Memphis, making his own recordings on Howlin' Wolf, while Sam Phillips continued to record him across the river in Memphis, sending the resulting masters up to Chicago. In the meantime, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Johnson continued to make musical history together, as these early recordings from their career easily testify. Part one leaves off in 1953, Memphis, with the Wolf making the trip to Chicago in 1954. Soon afterwards, he would come back down to West Memphis to retrieve Willie Johnson, where they would go on to make some of the most iconic recordings in blues history.... but we'll save that for Part Two. Pictured: Willie Johnson, in his later days. Image by John Anthony Brisbin/Living Blues.
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