Topic: John Jackson - thoughts? memories?

[outfidel]

These days, I'm listening a lot to John's 2 albums on Arhoolie - Country Blues & Ditties as well as Don't Let Your Deal Go Down. I'm also anxiously awaiting the DVD release of his Homespun lessons (fingers crossed -- Happy Traum says it will be released in early 2005).

I'd love to hear from folks who played or studied with John. What was he like as a performer and instructor? What did you learn from him?

(Thanks for the cross-post idea, waxwing!)

[Jellyroll]

I never studied with him, but I did meet him up at Port Townsend one year. He was a very modest and incredibly talented guy. Got him to sign my hat, which he thought was pretty funny.

[Yves]

John has been teaching at Exeter EBA some years ago - in 2001 I guess -
Many of his students could tell you how good and friendly he was.
John was planned to come again in 2002 unfortunately we all missed him ...
Yves

[uncle bud]

John was pretty much the same as a teacher and performer as I recall: he just sat there and played and talked and played some more, charming as hell. Fancier duds on stage. In classes, he would play anything you asked him to do and run through it as much as you needed, slowing it down for you to observe. There was no "here you go to the IV chord" or anything. He'd just repeat it until you said OK I got it. It was great to see him play up close, watching that thumb of his doing the backstrokes . He was a wonderful storyteller as well and folks would often ask him to tell a story in class, and he'd be out on the porch afterwards telling more of 'em. Easily one of the nicest men you'd ever meet. He was very much the embodiment of what the Port Townsend workshop aspires too -- great music from a great human being.

[eric]

Hi,

Back in the 70s, Mike Seeger was a visiting professor at Fresno State, invited by Gene Bluestein.  Among other things, Mike brought an impressive array people to play and workshop, imcluding Elizabeth Cotten, who I got to meet and photograph, the Balfa Brothers, Tommy Jarrell, Clifton Chenier, a fife and drum group from Senatobia ( Napoleon Strickland I think it was)  and many others, including John Jackson.  I was wondering around the student union with my guitar, and ran into another player, Bob Brozman, and asked him about John.  He said "He's upstairs, why not go talk to him?"  I was a little intimidated, but John put me at ease, told some stories, played a few tunes, and walked me through his version of Police Dog.  We played and chatted until Mike came to bring him on stage.  A gracious and talented man.  It's a great memory.

I didn't realize until living elsewhere what a great music scene existed in Fresno.

Best, Eric

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I brought my banjo to the first Port Townsend Workshop because I knew John played banjo from hearing his old Arhoolie recordings.  One afternoon I had it out and asked him if he would play a tune on it.  He said, "I really don't know nothing about playing the banjo, I swear it's true!"  I said, well, okay, I guess I'll play a tune then.  After I got done playing, I asked him again if he would like to play, and he said yes, and proceeded to play a ripping version of "Cindy".  We then passed it back and forth, playing several tunes.  After that, we always made a Banjo Workshop part of the Port Townsend week.  He loved to hear the Bo Carter tune"The Law's Gonna Step On You" on the banjo.
As Andrew said, John was a wonderful story-teller, and I particularly liked his tales of an enormous hog that got about as big as a horse, that started out belonging to a farmer he knew, and eventually just sort of made an independent life for itself.  Reminded me a bit of "Hogzilla" that got shot down in Georgia last year.
John had a very infectious smile and laugh and I loved to crack him up with silly antics like imitating a car stuck in a snow bank.  He had the capacity to make you feel really good about who you are just by being so glad to see you.  He was a great man and a wonderful musician.
All best,
Johnm

[Peter McCracken]

I loved that hog story, man - I find myself missing John a lot, especially this time of year. I think that he had a very tough life in a way that most of us can't understand very easily, and when he started traveling and playing music later in his life (late 60s), he was just so grateful at his fortune - I mean, he went to a million countries and people loved him everywhere he went, it was just something that was beyond his imagination. I think that was a part of why he was so humble.

Peter

[Buzz]

Can't add much to what you Weenies have already said. John was A rare human being, indeed. Very humble beginnings in the hills of VA, many siblings, started with instruments and listening to his parents Victrola or whatever phonograph records. His accent never failed to crack me up--I went to the Univ of VA for college, and those guys from the country of VA had an accent much different from GA or Mississippi. I loved his story-telling.

John by day  was a grave-digger. He was on very intimate terms with life and death. He surely was sincere about his good fortune to be so loved by all, wherever he went.

I have never met another player with a right thumb as talented, as fast in both directions. Sounded like he was wearing a thumb pick, but it was his prodigious nail. Amazing. Sometimes while I am operating (for those who don't know me, I am a reconstructive surgeon), a nurse will pull his BackPorch CD from my case, pop it in the boombox , and I am singing or humming along as I go. Such a repertoire. Quite a man. In a Stetson and suit.

Met him at PT, and now will never forget him.
Miller

[ohpapa]

John was quite simply one of the warmest and most generous human beings I've had the pleasure of meeting.  Although I had many opportunities to meet John through mutual friends over the years, I didn't get to meet him until about two years before he passed away.  I was invited to do a "Blues 101" workshop for some George Mason University graduate students as a preview before we all went to John's house.  John was highly entertaining, playing, telling stories and answering questions.  At one point during his workshop he invited his manager, Trish, to do a few numbers with him.  Afterwards I asked if I might play a number with him (pretty rude of me in retrospect, but I didn't want to pass up an opportunity and the workshop was very relaxed).  He invited me up and we played a blind Blake # ("Early Morning Blues" I think).  I thanked him for letting me play with him and tried to retake my seat in the audience and he grabbed my arm saying, "You stay right there.  Let's play another one."  "Another one" turned into a half-dozen more before I finally insisted I get back to my seat.  It is one of my fondest memories.  I dropped in on John a few times after that and got to spend an evening with him down here in Blacksburg, VA just a few months before he died and I cherish the memories of those visits.  I have also spent some time in the homes of some of John's friends and contemporaries including Nat Reese and the late Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong and the consensus seems to be that John was about the sweetest man you'd ever want to meet.  In general I have found that the players whose work I admire the most tend to be great human beings as well, but John was extra special.  If I can ever play half-as-good and be half-as-loved as he was I believe I'd be a very happy man.

[Bill Roggensack]

It was a sad day for country blues when John Jackson passed away. I think that his playing and incredibly positive personality influenced many members of this discussion forum. I have fond memories of John that I will cherish for the rest of my life. He was about as nice and kind a man as ever I met. He always seemed thrilled that anyone would take the time to talke to him, when in fact, the opposite was the case. With his Stetson cocked at a juanty angle, John always wore a smile and had a twinkle in his eye.

The first year I attended PTCBW, I watched him play guitar and marvelled at how effortless he made it look, yet so many notes came out of the instrument. A favorite B&W print in my collection is from my first year attending PTCBW in 1995 - just John, dressed to the nines with his trademark hat, a fine suit of clothes, a beautiful turquoise string necktie, and a smile that could melt ice. Whenever I look at that photo, I can't help but think - "There sits the happiest man alive."

John's participation in the 'country' blues (as opposed to country blues) afternoon workshop became a PTCBW tradition that I attended pretty well every year it happened. The assembled players would dust off tunes by Jimmie Rogers, Hank Williams, Tex Ritter, Mother Maybelle, and many more. Of course, John always got the center seat of honor. I can remember Steve James asking him just how many songs he knew that he could play and sing "on demand." John thought about it for a moment, then replied "Oh, I reckon about thirteen hundred or so." And that included a hundred verses of John Henry! Unfortunately, with his passing, some of his repertoire has probably slipped into obscurity.

I'm really glad to have been cheered by the warmth of his humanity, and to have been inspired by his art. John played and enetertained because he just plain loved the music.

[thehook]

Who on earth is this guy? Never heard of him before and then sitting here at 3 am I hear a banjo tune and for a second I thought I was listening to Sugarinthegourd.com but no it is an black dude on a blues station playing either clawhammer or old time two finger style. Really got me off gaurd for a minute. Any recordings of him anywhere else?

by the way the comment on black banjo player doesn't mean anything. I know the banjo is an african instrument and clawhammer came from black folks then white folks picked it up and they're stillborn child was *ICK bluegrass ICK*...on another note is their any chance of ever seeing a cheers icon like a bar mug with some liquid in it or a bottle with some old corn liquor in it? I seen em somewhere sometime but can't recall.
word man
matt

[Slack]

Hi Matt,  John Jackson is great... well worth checking out.  He has a few CD's available... here is is latest:

Front Porch Blues

cheers,
slack

[Johnm]

Hi all,
This is especially for those of you who knew John Jackson or Etta Baker.  A friend of mine, Steve Palazzo, emailed me this photo today, which I had never seen previously.
All best,
Johnm

[blueshome]

John was at the first two EBA Bluesweeks in 2000 and 2001.

In 2000 his class consisted of myself and two others for four of the five days, English reserve and embarrassment keeping the others away we thought - the class had been billed as "advanced". On his return the following year the penny had dropped and classes were fuller.

He teaching style was based on demonstration - "I'll play it as many times as you say so!", and he did, despite in 2000 being in severe pain through arthritis.

On the basis of this short acquaintance I can only use one word to describe John -  he was a gentleman in all the best senses of the word.

[Bald Melon Jefferson]

 Thanks for my new desktop photo John. Two of my very favorites together. John passed a few months before I decided to pick up a guitar and attempt to stimulate my brain, and soul a bit more than T.V. was doing. It would be another few years before I stumbled upon this forum and discovered John (and Etta too). But I'm very lucky indeed to be able to spend time with both taking an occational lesson via DVD. Sometimes I just put one on and listen to it in the background.
 That two-way thumb thing...? Boy I don't know...took a long time to get it moving downward with any degree of predictability...maybe some day.

Cheers, Gary