John Long is a national treasure.
In a world where everyone adopts a gimmick, an angle, a pose in order to get over, John Long is a living anachronism. He is a 100% pure, dyed-in-the-wool, no-BS bluesman for life. He was born, raised and bred on the blues. It’s not a ‘career choice’ for Long, not just a type of music… Read moreShow less
John Long is a national treasure.
In a world where everyone adopts a gimmick, an angle, a pose in order to get over, John Long is a living anachronism. He is a 100% pure, dyed-in-the-wool, no-BS bluesman for life. He was born, raised and bred on the blues. It’s not a ‘career choice’ for Long, not just a type of music he plays, or something he happened to be influenced by at some point. He’s not a blues player, he’s a Bluesman, with a capital B.
His complete recorded works up until now consist of a few deeply obscure backing appearances on other people’s sessions, a cut on a sampler released by the host of an NPR radio program, and a small handful of home-made demo recordings - one of which found its way into the hands of Delta Groove head Randy Chortkoff, who was blown away by the intensity and purity of Long’s music. John was quickly booked into a studio to record his first CD. With a 40 year backlog of original material from which to draw, the results are stunning.
Long has the uncanny ability to create and perform original material that sounds as if it came from a long-lost cache of vintage recordings by one of the classic bluesmen – it’s music completely unique and new, while at the same time hauntingly familiar. Long’s songs contain all the darkness and light, the humor and the pathos, and the fully realized musicality of the very best blues from the heyday of the genre. It’s a heyday that’s long gone, but in Long’s hands – in his world – it’s no gimmick, no pale imitation. This is the music that John Long has lived his whole life to create.
