Johnny Nicholas

By Kevin Wildman Johnny Nicholas is happy to announce that his new album, Mistaken Identity is out now and available on the Louisiana-based Valcour Records label. This is the tenth solo album by Johnny Nicholas. His last album was the 2016 release, Fresh Air. For those of you who do not recognize his name, you may remember the name of the band he used to front in the late 70s, Asleep At The Wheel. However, for the better part of his life, Johnny has pretty much been a solo act. Johnny has had quite a career. He started out in Rhode Island, where his first band, The Vikings, performed contemporary songs by the usual list of suspects, such as The Rolling Stones. From there he teamed up with Duke Robillard, Fran Christina and Steve Nardella to form the Black Cat Blues Band. Some of you may have heard of some of these cats. Duke Robillard performed with Roomful of Blues and Fran Christina wound up moving to Texas to join The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Following the Black Cat Blues Band Johnny went on to form the Boogie Brothers with Steve Nardella around 1970, and by 1972, Johnny and the Boogie Kings had relocated to beautiful California at the request of the amazing Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airman. By 1974, it was time for Johnny to move again… this time to Chicago where he started performing with the legendary Big Walter Horton. Following that he moved back to Rhode Island to start his own outfit again, Johnny Nicholas and the Rhythm Rockers. In 1978 he was requested to head to Texas to join up with Asleep At The Wheel. That lasted a couple of years and then Johnny knew just what he wanted to do…. his own music. And that’s when the real story of Johnny Nicholas begins… the solo years. So that’s enough of the history lesson now. Johnny has been a solo act for over 40 years now and he’s done a great job at it. As I said at the beginning, this is Johnny’s tenth solo album, and he’s extremely proud of it as well he should be. Of the ten songs on this album, only one is a cover song. The rest come from the heart and soul of Johnny Nicholas. Besides Johnny’s sound being predominately a Blues-Roots style on this album, he also delves into some straight Blues with “She Stole My Mojo,” and a little Honky Tonk with “Spark To A Flame,” not to mention a bit of Tex-Mex with one of his favorites, “Guadalupe’s Prayer.” One of my favorites off this album is the Rockabilly infused “Tight Pants.” One of the great things about this album is that it was primarily recorded live with very few overdubs. Even the vocals were done live while the band was playing. A lot of this had to do with the musicians that Johnny had perform on the album with him and the studio location. For the location, he returned to his old musical stomping grounds, Louisiana. Mistaken Identity was produced, recorded, and mixed in Joel Savoy’s studio by Valcour Records co-founder Joel Savoy himself. Joel knew exactly what Johnny wanted and kept him on track to do that. Johnny gives Joel a lot of credit on getting this album made and sounding as good as it does. He knew from the start that Joel was the man to sit at the helm of this project and made sure it came to be. It didn’t hurt that

Texas Hill Country Blues and Roots Music All-Star Johnny Nicholas Explores His Mistaken Identity

Johnny himself had assembled a fantastic cast peachy and then all of a sudden She kind of of players that included friends of his that had changes. Well that’s what that line is about, been performing with him for years. Among “She turned into a cold-blooded world-class, those were members of the Texas-based band, you know what. She started acting funny. She The Texmaniacs, which included Max and started acting strange like Jekyll and Hyde, Josh Baca. Other players on the album the way she changed. It’s just one of those included Scrappy Jud Newcomb (Acoustic things man. I’ve seen it happen so many and Electric Guitars, Mandolin and Vocals), times. That was based on some personal Chris Maresh (Electric and Upright Bass, experience of mine from the last several years Vocals), John Chipman (Drums and Percusand I just used the idea and wrote the song.” sion, Kurdish Frame Drum and Vocals), Chris A lot of Johnny’s songs are filled with Stafford (Organ), Eric Adcock (Clavinet), humor and sometimes people just don’t get it. Kelli Jones (Vocals and Tambourine), Sabra He even told us a funny story about the song Guzman (Vocals), Kelley Mickwee (Vocals), “Tight Pants.” After performing that one, he Alice Spencer (Vocals), Walt Wilkins received some interesting criticism that it was (Vocals) and Bill Small (Vocals). Yeah folks, sexist. “I’ve had some people that are like, this is quite an impressive list of people. oh, well, that’s just sexist. I said if you got a We got a chance to talk to Johnny and problem and if you’re politically correct and gain a little insight to the new album and he you can’t you can’t see beyond whatever you revealed quite a lot to us. For instance, think that’s about and get the humor in it, I’m “Mistaken Identity,” is taken from his own sorry. It’s like one chick that I know was experiences in life. “Well,” says Johnny, like, that’s sexist. I said, well I’ll tell you “you know, have you ever had a relationship with a woman and everything was just continued on next page October 2020 • Rock and Blues International 15

photo by Audrey Billups

Johnny Nicholas

continued from previous page what darling, quit wearing them damn tight continues Johnny. “That for me is a song that pants and let’s see. I mean one man’s political talks about the oppression of the common correctness is another man’s sin. “ people, which has been going on for Other songs like “She Stole My Mojo” thousands of years. People that gravitate to really gets you thinkin’. With this song, power use power for their own selfish Johnny paints a picture of a voodoo woman motivations and purposes to accumulate just going to town on this poor man’s soul, wealth and in the process, the working man “You know, “She Stole My Mojo” is more and the common people always suffer. This like… well, women are a powerful force and has been going on for a long time. And you I love women and I respect them, but they know, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patron have a power over us guys. I mean, it’s the Saint of the poor and the oppressed in natural order of attraction man, and it’s all of Mexico. There’s a whole legend about her that stuff, but there are a lot of things that we and I used parts of that legend in the song… can’t control that effect us very deeply. the crown of thorns and the blood of the When things happen in a relationship, you roses. It’s a very fascinating and beautiful have someone that gets might get mad at you story and she represented that hope to the and leaves. You know, there’s a line in there people. So yeah, I first played that song for where she said I’m going to leave, but I’m Walt Wilkins and he loved it. He said ‘Wow, not going away. And so, you know, it’s that it’s a baby Jesus song’ and in a way it is. We thing. We’re not together anymore, but she’s have people that come into the world who are still messing with my mind, and so it’s that true lights to the world and who inspire us whole that whole thing. There’s a lot of and who lift us up and who help to turn back superstition that came from south Louisiana the forces of darkness. And so yeah, that’s where I grew up musically back in the 70s in what that song is all about. It means a lot to a big way. Coming from the blues, there were me for a lot of other personal reasons, but it’s people that just really had deep connection really a song for the people.” with that expression. This was one of those Without a doubt, Johnny is one helluva many superstitions you hear of in the deep storyteller. These songs just aren’t little South… She’d cut my toenails off and put ditties. Some of them have great visuals to them in a crack. You know that’s true of a them like a great story, which is something lazy Lester song. And the other stuff. I mean that Johnny really likes to do. He really Muddy (Waters) and all those cats… knows how to paint a picture with his lyrics everybody… all the guys from the South and take you down a path to something even were always talking about Mojo. You know, more. Johnny tells us that, “There’s different we’re getting the Mojo hand and or getting a types of songs. I tend to write a lot of black cat bone or going to the hoodoo woman storytelling songs, and a good story is always and having a spell cast on your lover and all well received and people dig it. It’s apprecithat kind of stuff man. That’s what it’s all ated. It’s not like a history lesson, but it’s about. Well, she stole my Mojo and she won’t more like it’s just a good story. So whereas give it back.” Guadalupe’s Prayer is really probably more… Some of the songs on the album are a I guess you’d say, more allegorical. Then “I little more personal to Johnny, such as Want To Be Your Baby” is a love song, or a ‘I “Guadalupe’s Prayer,” which is more of a want to be in love with you’ kind of thing. So Tex-Mex song, and rightly so, as the Lady yeah, man, it’s all the range of our experiGuadalupe is a Patron Saint to a lot of ence.” Hispanics. “That song means a lot to me,” Another love song on the album, or 16 Rock and Blues International • October 2020 rather a ‘cry in your bottle of Jack Daniels, is the song, “She Didn’t Think Of Me That Way.” Here’s another story of unrequited love. “That’s another love song or a broken heart song. I guess you’d say cry in your beer song, that it’s all over. The way that got triggered was something that happened. Just meeting a girl and now everything it says in the story. I started doing that song with my good friends Max and Josh Baca from The Texmaniacs. We play together quite a bit. I love The Texmaniacs. Those guys are just too cool and talk about Americana. These guys are it. So those guys and I always play that song. I also had them on the album. You know, when I get an idea for a song and a melody, and then start crafting the story, the two all tie together and that one does. That was pretty powerful and it all ties together. Well, it’s funny though, man. I thought when you say Jack Black, everybody knows you talking about Jack Daniels Whiskey, right? Yeah, people will come up and say, ‘well who is Jack Black’ and I’m like, ‘are you kidding me?” For the song, “The Mule And The Devil,” Johnny tells us that it’s about staying tough in the face of adversity. “That’s a real power song. It’s kind of like me talking to myself. Hey, you know, when things get tough, just keep your head down and keep your mouth shut. Just keep your wheels on the tracks. We’re always getting pulled by temptation and other forces of good and evil in the world. So I just thought about the mule, you know, and how stubborn he is and he just goes about his business. So it’s kind of that I might be preaching to myself and whoever wants to listen, you know.” The last song on the album is “The River Runs Deep”, which is the only cover song on the album and it was written by Stephen Bruton. This was specially selected by Johnny to close the album as Stephen Bruton was a very special friend to Johnny, and he wanted to honor him. “Well, there’s a story to that one. “My dear friend Stephen Bruton was another impetus for me to really dig into my writing. Stephen was a great writer and a dear friend and the guys in my band all played with Steven, so we had a real connection with him. I usually do at least one cover song on my albums, or at least the last few I’ve done. I’ll do all originals and one cover song and that one just really made sense because of my affection and my friendship with Stephen, and my love of his music, and that particular song is just such a good one.” Well, there you have it… Another great album from Johnny Nicholas filled with 10 well-crafted songs… nine from Johnny, and one from Stephen Bruton. It really makes for a good selection. If you’re into Americana, or Blues-Roots music, you need to put this one at the top of our list. In a side note, I recently got to see Johnny perform a lot of these songs live at a club in Houston, Texas called The Mucky Duck, and he did a fantastic job performing them live. It was a small intimate performance and he was assisted by Mr. Accordion himself, Josh Baca, from The Texmaniacs. So if you ever get a chance to see this man perform live, make sure you do it. You are going to love it. Be sure to pick yourself up a copy of Mistaken Identity as soon as you can.