Search - Super Chikan :: Sum Mo Chikan

Good Rockin' Blues

Shannon Riley | Mississippi | 09/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"SUM' MO' CHIKAN

Super Chikan

Vizz Tone, 2008



James "Super Chikan" Johnson is an original Delta Bluesman, a songwriter, humorist, and entertainer extraordinaire. His latest album, Sum' Mo' Chikan, combines all these talents with a rare blend of blues seasoned by country, R & B and funk. The album features twelve tracks, and whether the subject is love, his adventures in Mexico City, or his roots, Super Chikan's songs are high energy, upbeat and satisfying.



The opening number, "Freddy's Thang" is a rousing instrumental featuring Chikan's fancy fret work on a song that will bring the listener to his feet, and that's only a sample of the good things to come. With an authentic sounding rooster crow, Chikan then launches into a spoken word introduction that leaves no doubt he is the real deal.



Track three, "Hookin' Up," is a humorous look at country yodeling vs. blues yodeling by artists like John Lee Hooker. Chikan proves his skill at both styles while giving listeners a taste of his own version of "Boom Boom" combined with some fine guitar work. "Yard Boy Blues," has a more traditional sound, but Chikan's lyrics are rich with implied double meaning. "Mexico City" boasts some fine Spanish style guitar work and "Crying about the Blues" is a rousing R & B flavored number with some down home wisdom about love and life. "You can't win until you learn how to lose," he says.



Playing the blues came naturally for Chikan. His grandfather was a fiddler and his uncle, Big Jack Johnson, is a W. C. Handy Award-winning artist from Lambert, Mississippi perhaps best known for his work with Sam Carr and Frank Frost in their band the Jelly Roll Kings.



Chikan has achieved much success in his own career. Nominated for a W. C. Handy Award in the category of Best New Artist in 1998, he is the recipient of five Living Blues Awards and an Excellence in Performance Governor's Award from Mexico City. He received a Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2004.



Chikan was drawn to music at an early age creating his first guitar, a diddley bow, from a piece of bailing wire stretched on a board and moving up to a two-string acoustic at thirteen. Chikan came into his own at nineteen when he began playing bass in the juke joints with his uncle Jack.



He enjoys several kinds of music that are reflected in his own songs, and he was inspired by artists like Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Lightin' Hopkins and Slim Harpo, but his style and delivery are uniquely his own. As a child at home, he learned to imitate the chickens' clucks and cackles, sounds he incorporates into his performances and mimics on his guitar. It's easy to enjoy Super Chikan's music when he seems to be having such a good time with it himself. He is authentic, down to earth and completely unpretentious.



Sum' Mo' Chikan is a strong, original and throughly enjoyable album blues lovers will not want to miss.



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