Bluesman Johnny Rawls set to close out Raleigh Jazz & Blues Concert Series for 2015
December 18, 2015
by Kenneth Bays
The Herald
When you think of the blues, do you think of screeching, squealing guitar riffs? The kind played by a guy wearing sunglasses and a fedora, notes blasting from his instrument a mile a minute?
If you do, don’t let well-known blues artist Johnny Rawls know. Better yet, visit the Raleigh Playhouse & Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when Rawls will show music lovers what his brand of blues is all about. It’s the final event of 2015 for the Raleigh Jazz & Blues Concert Series, presented by the organizers of the Simply Jazz and Blues Festival.
“I love playing my guitar, but I really want to put out a great song that people can listen to and appreciate,” the 64-year old-musician told Blues Revue magazine a little over a decade ago. “I don’t want my records to be full of guitar licks and nothing else. Nowadays, a lot of people are forgetting that the message is in the song. A guitar’s never sold a million records. The song sells the record.”
So while Rawls does play a mean guitar, his sound has more in common with the classic soul singers of the 1960s and early ‘70s. Artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and Percy Sledge, whose music heavily emphasized the vocals – gritty and emotional or smooth and stylish, depending on the song, but nearly always influenced by the impassioned singing they’d heard in the black churches of the South.
In its modern form, it’s a style that’s sometimes referred to as “soul blues.” Rawls, who hails from Hattiesburg, Miss. – the rural city that also gave the world the pop and country singer Jimmy Buffett – knows the genre well: He learned it first-hand from O.V. Wright, a Southern soul artist whose biggest hits were “You’re Gonna Make Me Cry,” in 1965, and “Eight Men, Four Women,” in 1967. Rawls spent part of the ‘70s learning his craft as Wright’s bandleader, and after Wright’s death in 1980 he struck out on his own.
Opening the Dec. 19 show will be musician Chris Sutton, of Barboursville, who serves as the director of the Diamond Teeth Mary Blues and Arts Festival in Huntington and is president of the Huntington Blues Society. A songwriter, singer and guitarist, he is a founding member of C&S Railroad, a band that has been featured at music festivals in Ohio and whose music has received airplay on regional radio stations for much of the past decade. The group released its most recent album, “Live at the Huntington Alehouse,” in January.
Tickets to the concert are $12 if purchased in advance, or $15 at the door. You can reserve tickets at the $12 price by calling 304-222-2536 or by emailing info@simplyjazzandblues.com. The Raleigh is located at 403 Neville St. in Beckley.
The event is sponsored in part by Whitesville State Bank and by HSC Industrial Inc., in association with the Raleigh Playhouse & Theatre and Kid In the Background.
For more information on Johnny Rawls, visit www.johnnyrawlsblues.com.
December 18, 2015
by Kenneth Bays
The Herald
 |
| Bluesman Johnny Rawls set to close out Raleigh Jazz & Blues Concert Series for 2015 |
If you do, don’t let well-known blues artist Johnny Rawls know. Better yet, visit the Raleigh Playhouse & Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when Rawls will show music lovers what his brand of blues is all about. It’s the final event of 2015 for the Raleigh Jazz & Blues Concert Series, presented by the organizers of the Simply Jazz and Blues Festival.
“I love playing my guitar, but I really want to put out a great song that people can listen to and appreciate,” the 64-year old-musician told Blues Revue magazine a little over a decade ago. “I don’t want my records to be full of guitar licks and nothing else. Nowadays, a lot of people are forgetting that the message is in the song. A guitar’s never sold a million records. The song sells the record.”
So while Rawls does play a mean guitar, his sound has more in common with the classic soul singers of the 1960s and early ‘70s. Artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and Percy Sledge, whose music heavily emphasized the vocals – gritty and emotional or smooth and stylish, depending on the song, but nearly always influenced by the impassioned singing they’d heard in the black churches of the South.
In its modern form, it’s a style that’s sometimes referred to as “soul blues.” Rawls, who hails from Hattiesburg, Miss. – the rural city that also gave the world the pop and country singer Jimmy Buffett – knows the genre well: He learned it first-hand from O.V. Wright, a Southern soul artist whose biggest hits were “You’re Gonna Make Me Cry,” in 1965, and “Eight Men, Four Women,” in 1967. Rawls spent part of the ‘70s learning his craft as Wright’s bandleader, and after Wright’s death in 1980 he struck out on his own.
Opening the Dec. 19 show will be musician Chris Sutton, of Barboursville, who serves as the director of the Diamond Teeth Mary Blues and Arts Festival in Huntington and is president of the Huntington Blues Society. A songwriter, singer and guitarist, he is a founding member of C&S Railroad, a band that has been featured at music festivals in Ohio and whose music has received airplay on regional radio stations for much of the past decade. The group released its most recent album, “Live at the Huntington Alehouse,” in January.
Tickets to the concert are $12 if purchased in advance, or $15 at the door. You can reserve tickets at the $12 price by calling 304-222-2536 or by emailing info@simplyjazzandblues.com. The Raleigh is located at 403 Neville St. in Beckley.
The event is sponsored in part by Whitesville State Bank and by HSC Industrial Inc., in association with the Raleigh Playhouse & Theatre and Kid In the Background.
For more information on Johnny Rawls, visit www.johnnyrawlsblues.com.
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