Page 69 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2019

of joy in the music and its energy, and to create a story in older and discovered who he was talking about, and he
the viewer’s mind. would look at me, rub my head and say, “I made Robert
William Wise of Duluth, MN, is a man of many interests and Lee a promise I did not keep.”
trades, including painting watercolor portraits and teaching When Grandpa wasn’t fishing or on the road, he played
others to draw and paint at the Duluth Art Institute. Focusing a fiddle. I’d sit and watch and listen. One day, he made me
on face and figure allows him to capture emotion and story, a diddley bow with broom wire and a stick of wood. Later
while painting in watercolor provides both control and on, I copied it and built one on the wall of the house. One
accuracy of the drawing, as well as the freedom, spontaneity day he heard me plucking on it, and he was amazed at the
and luminosity of the medium. WilliamWiseArt.com sound it made resonating on the wall. He smiled and said,
“I wish Robert Lee could see this.”
James “Super Chikan” Johnson Grandpa often had his front porch parties, and I loved to
James “Super Chikan” Johnson is one of the last of listen to him and the other musicians. They called each other
the original Delta blues musicians – born with the blues “Bro” with their last names, like “Bro Reed,” “Bro Williams,”
in his blood, tracing back to his uncle Big Jack Johnson, “Bro Morganfield” and so on. At least once or twice a
grandfather Ellis Johnson, and the infamous Robert Johnson month, he had a front porch party with lots of men playing
(a distant cousin). He grew up listening to front porch jam guitars, fiddles, buckets and harmonicas. Some of the songs
sessions with musicians we consider today to be blues they sang on the front porch, I also heard in the cotton fields.
legends, picking cotton in the fields with his family, minding That makes me feel a part of it all – those days will never
the chickens and making his own toys and instruments out of be seen again unless you paint a picture of it. Black men
recycled objects as a kid. and cotton fields – it’s just black and white until you add the
By his early 20s, Super Chikan played bass in local clubs blues. It brings color to life.
with Big Jack’s band, and went on to play bass and guitar Writing a song is just words until the words are put to
for a number of Delta blues bandleaders like Frank Frost poetry. It takes the right words to add color to a song. You
and Sam Carr. In his later adult years, Johnson wrote his can paint it blue, you can paint it happy or sad or angry. And
own songs while he worked as a truck driver, and eventually in your artwork, the wrong colors can make a happy picture
released his first album, Blues Come Home to Roost, in look sad. Music and art have voices and they will guide,
1997. Since then, he’s toured the world and released eight lead and speak to you, after all is said and done. The art of
other albums. blues is forever. Find Super Chikan at riggsentertainmentllc.
Super Chikan is an artist, not only when it comes to com/entertainers/james-super-chikanjohnson
playing the guitar, but also in the making of instruments into
functional pieces of folk art. Reminiscent of his childhood,
he uses repurposed items to create guitars, diddley bows
and banjos with names like “Chi-kan-tar,” “Cigar-gantar,”
“Bow-Jo” and “Shot-Tar.” A Chi-kan-tar, for example, is
made from discarded guitar parts and an old Army gas can,
hand-painted in a custom design with acrylic paint. A “Gui-
Jo” is made from a ceiling fan motor casing and a guitar
neck. His one-of-a-kind instruments have become coveted by
collectors, and garnered him an Artist Fellowship in 2005
from the Mississippi Arts Commission. As one of the last
original Delta blues musicians, Super Chikan’s music and art
have become his legacy.
James “Super Chikan” Johnson shared the following
with the Blues Festival Guide:
I was born February 16, 1951, in Darling, MS, in the Musician and artist James “Super Chikan” Johnson playing one of his creations, the
house of my grandparents, Ellis and Pearl Johnson. My “Gui-Jo,” a guitar resembling a banjo, using a ceiling fan motor cover
Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer
mom was young and still in school, so my grandmother
raised me, during which time I became my grandfather’s For more blues art, check out the Blues Festival
favorite grandchild. Grandpa Ellis Johnson talked about Guide online archives – in the past we’ve featured
his cousin, Robert Johnson, whom he called Robert Lee, artists including Kreg Yingst, Dane Tilghman, Sharon
which was not interesting to me at the time because I was McConnell, Grego Anderson, George Hunt and Phil
so young. But I remember some things he said when I was
Chesnut, among others!

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