Alfred “Snuff” Johnson

Texas nation bluesman Alfred “Snuff” Johnson has played guitar because the 1920s, but didn’t perform “professionally” for another 60 years, and wasn’t documented until 1994. Johnson was created in Cedar Creek, TX to parents Frank and Pearl Lee Johnson, who have been sharecroppers. His dad often performed the fiddle along with his uncle, Will Johnson, a guitarist. Both got an effect for the youthful Johnson, who viewed and listened intently. Ultimately, he was permitted to grab his uncle’s acoustic guitar. It had been also concerning this period — around age 12 — that he started using snuff and gained his nickname. His uncle threw nation balls frequently, which featured decrease dance, folk blues, and nation music. The music noticed at these in fluenced Snuff’s repertoire, as do viewing Mance Lipscomb perform few instances. Snuff’s relaxed design includes a stable thumb-strummed bassline that demonstrates Lipscomb’s impact. Johnson started playing his “dark cowboy blues at home celebrations and balls, but additionally performed acoustic guitar in chapel. He resolved in Austin after becoming discharged through the military in 1945 and continued to be there, employed in building, at something train station and, finally, like a piano mover. He performed out (but not for spend) through the ’50s and ’60s, and in the middle-’70s, met a car mechanic who been focusing on a Gibson acoustic guitar. Snuff selected it up and performed it a little, starting a companionship with the person. The mechanic was a music lover, Charles Devitalis, who continued to provide as informal consultant to Snuff, who couldn’t read or create. After retiring in 1976, Snuff centered on his family members (he offers 13 kids from three relationships) as well as the chapel. His materials includesre-compositionss of aged blues standards such as for example “HELLO Blues” and “post-gospel, camp getting together with era” religious tunes, including hymns like “HEADING BACK to Jesus” and “Aged Time Religious beliefs.” Johnson’s performed 1st professional displays in the past due ’80s, when he was asked to execute at Austin’s Continental Golf club, and Antone’s. He rejected an Austin producer’s documenting offer in the first ’90s, and soon after was asked by Alan Govenar to try out in the Dallas Museum of Artwork. The following 12 months, Govenar brought Snuff back again to Dallas to record, leading to the 1994 Documentary Arts launch, Dark Cowboy Blues and Chapel Songs.