JOHNNY SHINES’ GUITAR

Johnny Shines needs no introduction to blues lovers. Often –maybe too often – mentioned as Robert Johnson’s pal on the streets, he had a remarkable voice and mastery of blues in his on right, oeasily one of the greatest bluesmen ever. Blues Matters’ great friends from Alabama, Debbie Bond and Rick Ascherson, are currently on tour in France and visiting UK shortly. Debbie played with the late Johnny Shines until his death in 1990.

Now she is on a mission, as she explains exclusively here:

”I am very excited to be off on a tour in the UK and France, running from July to October, and the tour this year has an added mission.

When I moved to Alabama in 1979, I amazingly managed to connect with the late, great Johnny Shines, and went on to share my band with him until his death in 1992. Fast forward to 2005, where I was playing with the legendary Alabama bluesman, Willie King, at the wonderful Cognac Blues Festival. It was at the festival that I first met Jacques Garcia, founder of the Maison du Blues, and creator of a museum and venue now located in Châtres-sur-Cher, France. Over the years, the museum has curated the only existing exhibition on Alabama blues in the world. On one of Jacques’ many visits to Alabama, he was able to purchase Johnny Shines’ long-treasured acoustic guitar.

This year, Rick and I have the venerable blues mission of transporting the instrument from Alabama to Jacques’ museum in France. Although I am sad that Johnny’s guitar didn’t end up in Alabama, I am deeply thankful it will be in a public space where it can be enjoyed by thousands of blues lovers. “