Topic: Larry Johnson's Guitar Style

[crookedtune]

I just searched on 'Larry Johnson', and found a few things.  But I'm still looking for more.

I've been a big fan of Larry's for almost 40 years, particularly the 'Fast & Funky' album on Blue Goose.  I've learned a lot of songs from his recordings, but really can't duplicate his sound --- particularly the moving bass lines that add so much interest.

Has anyone tabbed out any of the tunes from that album?  Are these published/available?

[Mr.OMuck]

Ya know,  if you live in the states you could just call Larry up and take some lessons if he wants to give them. I'm sure he's not impossible to track down. First hand is the way to go when possible.

[lindy]

I'm pretty sure, though not 100% certain, that Larry lives full-time in Europe these days.

My 2 cents is that a lot of the stuff on Fast and Funky is pretty straightforward, especially the ragtime material. From your post it sounds like you've already done the bulk of the work getting the basics of each song. Depending on where you're located, I suggest finding a local teacher or playing buddy who can help you figure out the finer points, then you can woodshed to your heart's content to get that "Johnson sound."

Good luck! Getting that sound is a worthy task, but so is making the songs from that album your own.

Lindy

[frankie]

I understand that Larry could be a very motivational teacher:

"If you CAN'T....   DON'T!"

[uncle bud]

 

I don't know a lot about Larry Johnson's playing, but it seems to me to be informed by Rev. Gary Davis's style of closed position chords and bass lines. I was recently watching the John Jackson Video Collection (more on that later), and at one point in the 1986 documentary An American Songster that is part of the collection, there's an extended scene between John Jackson and Larry Johnson (with a little footage that includes John Cephas, Phil Wiggins and John Dee Holeman as well). Larry plays a couple things, a Rev. Davis tune, and Charlie Stone. He really does use a lot of those closed position chords to get those bass lines. Worth viewing for some insight.

[Parlor Picker]

"Fast and Funky" is one of my all-time favourite albums, for the picking, singing and the feel Larry gets. The "bounce" he gets may not be so easy to replicate, as it's all down to personal style.

All his other recorded works (I think) seem to feature a simpler approach to the guitar, with more strumming and less picking. He played in my home town here in the UK some years ago (maybe the late 80s) and was hitting the strings so hard that he simultaneously broke both BOTTOM strings - the E and the A!! It was at that same gig that Roger Hubbard turned up to watch and when Larry saw him he asked where his guitar was. Typically modest, Roger had not brought a guitar, upon which Larry remonstrated "Shame on you, shame on you!" Apparently Larry considers Roger the only British player who can really cut it.

[crookedtune]

Thanks, all.  I suppose understanding the basis for Larry's sound will require more analytical study on my part, rather than just enjoying the tunes as I normally play them.  Just being lazy, I guess...     

It is interesting to me that 'Fast & Funky' was such a bold and inspired set, whereas other of Larry's recordings, and the one live show I caught back then, were somewhat more predictable.  Anyway, it's one of a few records (along with John Miller's 'First Degree Blues') that just never got stale for me over they years.   

Roger Hubbard, yeah....I'll have to pull out that old vinyl slab again too!  And maybe 'These Blues Was Meant to be Barrelhoused'!  Blue Goose sure had it going on back then!

[CF]

Yes, I've said it before but Fast & Funky is my pick for the cream of the revivalist crop. I love the looseness of the record, Larry's singing & bounce & how he seems to have no idea how to end songs! Inspired stuff.

Another way to learn Larry's style is to watch the man play. I'm assuming there are some videos on Youtube?

[Terrablues]

SEPTEMBER 2013

9/14/2013
MR. LARRY JOHNSON
7:30 PM - 10:00 PM (two, 60-minute sets)
TICKETS: $10.00 (One entrance ticket allows holder to stay the entire evening)
FOLLOWING ACT: Saron Crenshaw Band (10:30-2:30 AM)

Acoustic blues doesn't get any more authentic than this! Among the postwar generation of blues artists, Larry Johnson --- from Riceville, Georgia --- is one of the most devoted to the pure Delta and Texas styles of the 1920's.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I know this thread has not been posted to in a while, but I've been working a lot with Larry's repertoire from his "Fast And Funky" album on Blue Goose, as a result of being hired to transcribe several of his songs and do lessons on them.  Thus far, I've transcribed his versions of "Keep It Clean", "The Beat From Rampart Street", "Four Women Blues", "Charley Stone", "Ragged And Dirty", and "Two White Horses", and I'll be transcribing "Cookbook" next.  Working with so many of Larry's arrangements has made me realize and appreciate what an original stylist he was on that Blue Goose album and on the albums leading up to it.  He was by no means a Rev. Davis android--Larry had his own way of doing things and getting around on the guitar, and he did a lot of things that I never heard Rev. Davis do (and of course, Rev. Davis did a lot of things that Larry never did). 
If there may be said to be two technical stylistic hallmarks of Larry's arranging on the "Fast And Funky" album, they would be the following:
   * He loved to use open strings to get up and down the neck when transitioning between chord changes.  That way he could keep his right hand picking the open strings while he moved to his next chordal position.  The way he did this is really clever and original, and it would not be an exaggeration to say I have not encountered anything like the way Larry utilized this approach in the playing of any other Country Blues guitarist.
   * He loved harmonized 6ths, fretting the same fret on either the first and third strings or the second and fourth strings.  The use of these harmonized 6ths is a staple of both his sound and his technical approach to arranging.  And just as with his use of open strings to get up and down the neck, his use of the harmonized 6ths is completely distinctive, and utterly his own.

Another feature of Larry's playing and arranging on the "Fast And Funky" album is his fondness for re-arranging blues standards in his own style, with this often resulting in formal one-offs.  His version of "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", "Two White Horses", takes the song's 16-bar form and takes it all kinds of new places.  Instead of having four four-bar phrases, in each of which the vocal sings across the first two bars and the guitar plays an instrumental response in the third and fourth bars, Larry lengthens the instrumental responses, and varies them from verse to verse, with a 3-bar instrumental response to each vocal phrase in the first verse, a four-bar instrumental response (with one of the bars in 3/4) to each vocal phrase in the second verse, and a four-bar instrumental response to each vocal phrase in the third verse.  The instrumental responses, moreover, are different for each verse.  For Larry's version of "Ragged And Dirty" he employs (but not completely) a doubled up form in which all of the lengths in a conventional 12-bar blues are doubled, except in his IV chord, where he is short, doing three bars rather than four.  Thus it is that ends up with a 23-bar form, i.e., 12 bars X 2 - 1!

I think, paradoxically, that the fact that Larry was playing all of his own music rather than recreations of historic recordings may have worked to his disadvantage, in terms of getting adequate recognition for the brilliance and originality of what he was doing.  A lot of people thought the very best thing you could hope for from a present-day Country Blues player was a very good recreation of an historic recording, and Larry wasn't interested in doing that.  In a number of ways, Larry reminds me a lot of Buddy Moss.  They're both from Georgia, both original and very expert players, picking with thumb and index finger, both strong singers, too, with rich, deep voices, and I think both of them knew how good they were, and didn't suffer fools gladly.  It's a little sad to be saying at this juncture that Larry should have been more appreciated and accorded more recognition than he was during his lifetime, but it's a fact.  I think he was one of the very top East Coast blues players, and one of the most original.

All best,
Johnm   

[RobBob]

John, I would be interested in acquiring copies of your transcriptions of Larry's work could you pm about price etc.?  I remember the day I found his LP Fast and Funky in the Base Exchange.  I was serving in the military and it was great to find a younger musician playing in the style he pursued. His playing was typical of many blues men I was familiar with.  He played his versions of older pieces and pieces I had never heard and was his own man.  Perhaps that is why his is one of my desert island discs. 

I appreciate your keen analysis of his playing, you have provided solid insights into his style.

[big joe weems]

While Johnson is obviously nothing close to a RGD clone, it should be said that Rev. Davis used open strings extensively to transition between chord positions.

[Stuart]

...It's a little sad to be saying at this juncture that Larry should have been more appreciated and accorded more recognition than he was during his lifetime, but it's a fact...

I'd say that it's not just "a little sad," but extremely sad. He certainly deserved a lot more recognition and appreciation of his talents than he received during his lifetime. The semi-mainstream NYC FM stations would occasionally break from their format and play cuts from his LPs back in the 70s. At least some of the DJs appreciated the man and his music and were doing what they could to help him reach a wider audience.

...I think, paradoxically, that the fact that Larry was playing all of his own music rather than recreations of historic recordings may have worked to his disadvantage, in terms of getting adequate recognition for the brilliance and originality of what he was doing.  A lot of people thought the very best thing you could hope for from a present-day Country Blues player was a very good recreation of an historic recording, and Larry wasn't interested in doing that...

I agree 100%, John. If people would just stop listening to their own preconceived notions of what they think music should sound like, and open their minds and actually listen, their appreciation and enjoyment of music would greatly increase.