View source for Willie Johnson (guitarist)

{{Short description|American electric blues guitarist (1923–1995)}}
{{Other people|Willie Johnson}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| name             = Willie Johnson
| image            = Willie-Johnson-by-James-Fraher-Chicago-1984-square.jpg
| caption          = 
| image_size       = 
| background       = solo_singer
| birth_name       = 
| alias            = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1923|3|4|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Senatobia, Mississippi]], U.S. 
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1995|2|26|1923|3|4|mf=y}}
| death_place      = Chicago, Illinois
| instrument       = [[Electric guitar]]
| genre            = [[Electric blues]],<ref name="Chadbourne">
{{cite web
| url = http://www.allmusic.com/artist/willie-johnson-mn0000584695
| title = Willie Johnson – Artist Biography
| last = Chadbourne
| first = Eugene
| work = [[AllMusic]]
| access-date = May 22, 2015
}}</ref> [[Memphis blues]]<ref name="Chadbourne"/>
| occupation       = [[Guitarist]]
| years_active     = 1940s–1950s
| label            = [[Sun Records|Sun]]
| past_member_of  = [[Howlin' Wolf]]
}}

'''Willie Johnson''' (March 4, 1923 – February 26, 1995) was an American [[electric blues]] guitarist. He is best known as the principal guitarist in [[Howlin' Wolf]]'s band from 1948 to 1953.<ref>{{cite book|first=David |last=Dicaire|title=Blues Singers|url=https://archive.org/details/bluessingersbiog00dica|url-access=registration|publisher=McFarland|year=1999|isbn=978-0-7864-6241-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/bluessingersbiog00dica/page/94 94]}}</ref> His raucous, distorted guitar playing is prominent on Howlin' Wolf's [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] recordings during 1951–1953, including the hit song "[[How Many More Years]]" (recorded May 1951).<ref>{{cite book|first=Edward M. |last=Komara|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediablue00koma |url-access=limited |publisher=Routledge|date=2006|isbn=978-0415926997|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediablue00koma/page/n451 387]}}</ref>

In 2017, Johnson was posthumously inducted in to the [[Blues Hall of Fame]].<ref name="HOF">{{cite web|url=https://blues.org/hall/|title=BLUES HALL OF FAME - ABOUT/Inductions - Blues Foundation|website=Blues.org|access-date=January 21, 2018}}</ref>

==Life and career==
'''Willie Lee Johnson''' was born in [[Senatobia, Mississippi]]. As the guitarist in the first band led by [[Howlin' Wolf]],<ref name="Chadbourne"/> he appeared on most of Wolf's recordings between 1951 and 1953. He provided the slightly jazzy yet raucous guitar sound that was the signature of all of Wolf's Memphis recordings.  Johnson also performed and recorded with other blues artists in the [[Memphis blues|Memphis area]],<ref name="Chadbourne"/> including pianist [[Willie Love]], [[Willie Nix]], [[Junior Parker]], [[Roscoe Gordon]], [[Bobby "Blue" Bland]] and others.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

{{Listen
| filename    = Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years.ogg
| title       = Howlin' Wolf – "How Many More Years" (1951)
| description = [[Howlin' Wolf]]'s "[[How Many More Years]]" (1951) with Willie Johnson on the electric guitar.
| pos         = left
}}

When Wolf moved to Chicago in around 1953, he could not convince Johnson to join him.<ref name="Chadbourne"/> Johnson stayed on in Memphis for several years, playing on a number of sessions for [[Sun Records]], including a 1955 collaboration with vocalist Sammy Lewis, "I Feel So Worried", released under the name Sammy Lewis with Willie Johnson. By the time Johnson relocated to Chicago, Wolf had already hired guitarist [[Hubert Sumlin]] as a permanent replacement.<ref name="Chadbourne"/> [[James Cotton]] later recalled that Wolf replaced Johnson because of his heavy [[Alcohol abuse|drinking]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Will Romano|title=Incurable Blues: The Troubles & Triumph of Blues Legend Hubert Sumlin|publisher=[[Backbeat Books]]|date=2005|page=25|isbn=978-0879308339}}</ref>

Johnson occasionally performed and recorded with [[Howlin' Wolf]] after settling in Chicago, and also played briefly in the band of [[Muddy Waters]], as well as a number of other local [[Chicago blues]] musicians, including [[J. T. Brown (musician)|J. T. Brown]], in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He made his living mainly outside of music for the rest of his life, only occasionally sitting in with the bands of his old friends around Chicago. His final recordings were made for [[Earwig Music Company|Earwig Music]] in Chicago in the early 1990s.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} Johnson died in Chicago on February 26, 1995.

==Namesakes==
Willie Johnson the guitarist should not be confused with Willie Johnson (a member of the [[Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet]] until joining the Jubilaires in 1948), or with [[Blind Willie Johnson]], an earlier [[Gospel music|gospel]] artist.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Willie}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:American blues guitarists]]
[[Category:American male guitarists]]
[[Category:African-American guitarists]]
[[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
[[Category:People from Senatobia, Mississippi]]
[[Category:Musicians from Mississippi]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:Earwig Music artists]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American musicians]]