``Me And Mr. Johnson'': Eric Clapton Honors Robert Johnson on New Album.Entertainment Editors BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2004 Eric Clapton pays a unique tribute to seminal blues innovator Robert Johnson Robert Johnson may refer to:
"It is a remarkable thing to have been driven and influenced all of my life by the work of one man," Clapton says. "And even though I accept that it has always been the keystone of my musical foundation, I still would not regard it as an obsession; instead, I prefer to think of it as a landmark that I navigate by, whenever I feel myself going adrift. I am talking, of course, about the work of Robert Johnson. "Up until I heard his music, everything I had ever heard seemed as if it was dressed up for a shop window somewhere, so that when I heard him for the first time, it was like he was singing only for himself, and now and then, maybe God. At first, it scared me in its intensity, and I could only take it in small doses. Then I would build up strength and take a little more, but I could never really get away from it, and in the end, it spoiled me for everything else. "Now, after all these years, his music is like my oldest friend, always in the back of my head, and on the horizon. It is the finest music I have ever heard. I have always trusted its purity, and I always will." "Me And Mr. Johnson" features Clapton renditions of fourteen of the twenty-nine songs written and recorded by the mythic Mississippi blues master over the course of his brief career in the 1930s. Robert Johnson is often called the greatest blues man of all time, someone who not only inspired Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf Howlin' Wolf, 1910–76, African-American blues singer and composer, b. White Station, Miss., as Chester Arthur Burnett. Exposed to blues performers from childhood, he sang locally and organized his first band in West Memphis, Tenn., in 1948. and other Chicago urban blues titans, but also was a huge influence on the Rolling Stones Rolling Stones, English rock music group that rose to prominence in the mid-1960s and continues to exert great influence. Members have included singer Mick Jagger (Michael Phillip Jagger), 1943–; guitarists Brian Jones and the Allman Brothers Band in the development of rock 'n' roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. during the 1960s and 1970s. Sixteen-time Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards) are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the record industry. The current President of the Academy is Neil Portnow. winner and the only triple Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, and other people who have in some major way influenced the music industry, particularly in Inductee, Eric Clapton has recorded a number of Robert Johnson songs in the past, in previous bands like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Cream, as well as a solo artist, but this marks the first time he has dedicated an entire album to the legendary blues pioneer. "Me And Mr. Johnson" joins such acclaimed recent offerings as 1994's "From The Cradle" and 2000's collaboration with B.B. King, "Riding With The King," in Eric Clapton's ongoing exploration of his rich musical roots. Produced by Eric Clapton and Simon Climie, "Me And Mr. Johnson" features the following Robert Johnson perennials: "When You Got A Good Friend," "Little Queen Of Spades," "They're Red Hot," "Me And The Devil Blues," "Traveling Riverside Blues," "Last Fair Deal Gone Down," "Stop Breakin' Down Blues," "Milkcow's Calf Blues," "Kindhearted kind·heart·ed adj. Having or proceeding from a kind heart. See Synonyms at kind1. kind Woman Blues," "Come On In My Kitchen," "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day," "Love In Vain," "32-20 Blues" and "Hellhound On My Trail." Joining Eric Clapton on "Me And Mr. Johnson" are such longtime studio stalwarts as Andy Fairweather Low (guitar), Doyle Bramhall II (guitar), Billy Preston William Everett Preston (September 2 1946 – June 6 2006) was an American soul musician from Houston, Texas, raised mostly in Los Angeles, California. In addition to his successful, Grammy-winning career as a solo artist, Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in (keyboards), Jerry Portnoy (harmonica harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called his instrument the Mundäoline. ), Nathan East (bass) and Steve Gadd (drums). |
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