Search - Lonnie Johnson :: Idle Hours

A soft touch on hard blues

Samuel M Smith | Fort Worth, TX United States | 10/03/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was introduced to Lonnie Johnson's clean, spare guitar style on a compilation of blues legends and immediately went looking for more. This album, recorded in 1961 after he was rediscovered by the '60s blues boom, reveals an older artist with plenty of fire left in his belly. His vocal delivery is virtuosic and seemingly effortless. The songs are pretty standard blues fare lyrically but are delivered with the restrained elegance that separates authentic Bluesmen from guys who happen to play the blues. Victoria Spivey's voice is in fine form on the few cuts where she appears and blends well with the relaxed cool this album exudes. The piano on this record has a haunting quality that transports you back in time to the days before drums and synthesizers became the measure of musical excellence. If Albert King was right (and he usually was) when he said that the purpose of the blues is to soothe, this is one of the finer blues albums I've ever heard. I can't wait to hear more from the often-overlooked but nonetheless magnificent Lonnie Johnson."