Johnny DrummerEarwig Music Company Regcording Artist

www.johnnydrummermusic.com

www.earwigmusic.com

I lived with my great-grandmother Betty Patterson on my mother’s side. I used to see muscians like Little Milton, Ike Turner, Clayton Love, Raymond

Hill every weekend. In 1954, I came to Chicago by myself and lived with my mother about eight months but then I went back south at 17.

I started living on my own in Shelby, and went in the military at age 18 for three years. While I was in the military, that’s where I learned to play drums. I used to sit in on drums when bands came around. I’d play one or two songs and that was about it.

When I got out of the Army in 1959, I was living at 62nd and May in Chicago, near the corner where Lovie Lee, Big Walter Horton, Carey Bell, Nathaniel Apple-white, and another guitar player named Sam were play-ing at a local club. I used to sit down and watch ‘em play and soon I started playing the drums in Lovie’s band. I think the only way I got a chance to play with them was ‘cause I was the only one who had a car.

After a while, I started playing with Eddie King, He had a little record out then and was doing pretty good. I played with Eddie from 1961-62, with Willie Black on bass and Willie Young on saxophone. I played with these guys off and on through the ‘60s. From 1962 through 1964, I worked for the Chicago Board of Education, but eventually gave it up to play music.

Around 1962 I cut a record for Wonderful Records. The songs I recorded were “Lookin’ For My Baby” and “I Can’t Stop Twisting.” They wanted me to come back with another song, but I didn’t have another song! So the record never came out.

On that session, I had Eddie King, Willie Black, Roy Johnson, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Otis Spann. with Monk Higgins producing. I also recorded in 1965 for Billy “The Kid” Emerson, with me overdubbing some Lonnie Brooks vocals on two tracks called “Con-jured” and “Never Get Enough.” But the records never got issued.

Other musicians I had in my band during the 1960s, at various times, included Sammy Lawhorn, Johnny Twist, Lefty Dizz or Roy Hightower on guitar, Odell Campbell or Nick Charles on bass, and Eddie Shaw on saxophone. I also played drums on a few Eddie King singles.

I used the name Johnny Drummer from day one with Lovie Lee. I picked that name, because I’d watched that Sterliing Hayden movie, “Johnny Guitar”, and I thought, “Hey that’s hip”! Johnny Guitar... Johnny Drummer”. I don’t even know how I got the band name the Starliters. I just started using it.

I got a chance to play with B.B. King in 1965, at a club called Lee’s. It was B.B.’s birthday and his drum-mer didn’t show up. Then in 1966, I went to see Muddy Waters in downtown Chicago, and he asked me to sit in. Muddy wanted me to go on the road with him, but I had a day job and was making more money than he was of-fering, so I turned him down. It was an honor though. He had Mojo Buford on harmonica, Otis Spann on piano, Willie Smith on drums, and Luther (Georgia Boy) John-son on guitar.

In the ‘60s my band worked just about everywhere they hired a band on the South and West sides. I really started to leave the drums alone when we were playing at a nightclub on a show with Syl Johnson and Jimmy Witherspoon. The club owner put me out front as a singer, opening the shows.

I was born Thessex Johns, March 1, 1938, in a small town called Alligator, Mississippi, on Highway 61, twelve miles south of Clarksdale, in the heart of the Delta. My stepfather and his three brothers, they all played guitar-hollow-box guitars. On a summer night you could hear ‘em from miles away. That was my first remembrance. I was about four or five; I knew all the songs. They used to play their guitars and make me sing. When I was about seven, I was singing with the Kelly Brothers Band at Pleasant Valley Church in Alligator.

We just started hitting the bigger clubs then, like Walton’s Corner, The Bonanza, High Chappa-ral, Guys and Gals and Beale Street. My band,

during the time, backed everybody – Z.Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Willie Mabon, and Junior Wells. We also backed a lot of the Brunswick recording artists on shows.

I was doing great, until I had a string of bad luck in 1971. All in about a week, I had a fire on a Wednesday and lost everything but my drums because they were in my car. But that Friday my car was stolen. I had a wife and three kids so I picked up the phone and got my old job back at the Board of Education. After that, I took a job with the Police department in 1974, and retired from there in 1994.

I never stopped making music. Though I kept gig-ging, I didn’t record again until 1975 when I recorded with the Aces and Bobby King in for the French label, MCM. “Someday Baby (Worried Life Blues)”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, and “Yonder’s Wall” were recorded during that time.

By the mid ‘70s, I had cut my band loose. I start-ed sitting in as a singer with the Aces, Louis and Dave Myers, Fred Below at Louise’s South Park Liquors at 69th & King Drive on Blue Mondays from 1974-76. I also worked at the Launching Pad and at Queen Bea’s Lounge around that time, with T.J. on bass and Luther

Adams on guitar. Sometimes Son Seals played guitar and Snapper Mitchum was on bass. In the late ‘70s, I cut two of my songs, “The Fire is Gone” and “I’ll Find a Way,” on the Abco Label.

I first started playing keyboards when I was about 12, playing the boogie woogie. But I first started to get serious with it, was around 1985. The reason I changed over from drums, was that I started to look out for my future. There are a lot of 75-year-old keyboard players around, but not too many old drummers, so I saw I’d better switch.

I really got the keyboard, because nobody remem-bered my songs, my keys, nothing. I got it just to lay out my recordings, not to put it on the bandstand. But after awhile I found out that I was playing better than some of the guys I was hiring. I’ve been playing key-boards ever since.

Junior Wells started me on harmonica. First in 1965, then in 1974 he got me another one, and told me, “You’re gonna blow it.” Junior taught me a few things, so now I just throw it in as a gimmick. Ever since I sat in on drums that first time in 1959, and got hired by Lovie Lee, I’ve been into music. I have always been hard on my band, making them sound good and tight. I never intended on getting out front!

Johnny Drummer

Johnny DrummerSongwriter Under A Groove

I first met Johnny Drummer around 1974, at Lou-ise’s South Park Liquors, on Chicago’s South Side, where he and The Aces—Louis and Dave Myers and

Fred Below, along with guitarists Left Hand Frank, Joe Carter (an Elmore James imitator), and the jazzily soul-ful Bobby King—had a fabulous Blue Monday party. Johnny was just singing then, making the ladies swoon with his charming smile and killer version of Latimore’s hit “Let’s Straighten It out.” In those days, Theresa’s Tavern, the Checkerboard Lounge, Louise’s, and the Queen Bee Lounge all had Blue Monday sets, and musi-cians like Junior Wells, Lefty Dizz, Johnny Dollar, and numerous others would make the rounds sitting in on their nights off.

I often heard Johnny in those days, and ran into him occasionally over the twenty-six years since. He always had a very tight band which followed his every cue. For the past five years he has worked most weekends at Lee’s Unleaded Blues, formerly the Queen Bee Lounge, 7401 S. South Chicago Avenue, my favorite blues club in Chicago for atmosphere, friendliness and a chang-ing revue of musical characters. Every so often Johnny Drummer would ask me about doing a record on Earwig. When he handed me a cassette in September 1998, I was amazed at the creativity of his compositions, which he rarely played on gigs. Though Earwig has been known mostly for traditional blues, and Johnny’s tape of smooth soul was done on an electronic keyboard, I leapt at the chance to put it out. Earwig had entered the soul age and was proud to have Johnny Drummer, a great songwriter under a groove, on the label.

Now that I have had a chance to work with him on a second album for Earwig, I have an even greater appre-ciation for Johnny’s array of talents. This new album is mostly soulful original tunes with a rhythmic groove and a hook, love ballads, blues and songs in the key of life.

Like all great artists, Johnny thinks, eats, sleeps and breathes music—hearing ideas and sounds in the air and filing them in his brain and on paper for song ideas. Like Duke Ellington, Johnny has been known to awaken in the middle of the night and write. He has notebooks full of lyrics and tapes full of music. After two nights of gigging followed by a full day of recording on the new Earwig album, Johnny stayed up until 6:00 a.m.

writing another song, which he then brought in to the studio. Vocalists often ask him to write a tune for them for their next project. No sooner had his It’s So Nice CD come out, than Bobby Jonz covered Johnny’s swagger-ing “Tag On Your Toe.”

Johnny also knows arranging. Though self-taught, he hears and feels all the instrumental parts, including background vocals and horns. On the bandstand and in the studio Johnny roams around the room directing the sounds with his arms and his foot. Rhythm sections es-pecially know that he is quite capable of grabbing their instruments and playing the parts that he wants. As a performer, he understands his audience and adapts his performance and repertoire to the mood and occasion. People relate to his songs, as evidenced by the cries, head bobs, laughs, smiles, dancing shoulders and tapping feet from the audience call-and-response he generates.

Bandleading is a tough job, but Johnny always rises to the occasion, coaxing the best out of his musicians without verbally abusing them in the process. Sing-ers hired with his backing band or sitting in on his sets know that his band is tight and won’t crowd their vocals, and that Johnny does not get jealous of the audience response they garner. Johnny exudes self-confidence without cockiness; his dapper attire, understated good looks and bright smile charm the ladies—and the men too. So what if his song “I Want to Get In Your Head Before I Get In Your Bed” is a pickup line. Ladies love it and men wish they had thought of it!

As a record producer and artist manager I always try to convey to the audience the essence of what a musi-cian’s sound and personality is all about. That’s why I call Johnny Drummer “songwriter under a groove.”

by Michael Robert Frank

Earwig Music Company

Office: (773) 262-0278 Fax: (773) 262-0285

earwigmusic@aol.comwww.earwigmusic.com

Rockin’ In Ihe Juke JointEarwig Music - 2007by Eric Steiner for ChicagoBlues Guide

I had the good fortune to see Johnny Drummer and the Starliters at a Chi-cago Blues Festival after-set in 2007

at the Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foun-dation fundraiser at 2120 South Michigan Avenue. Drummer’s 2006 Earwig release, Rockin’ In the Juke Joint, brings back many pleasant memories from that show. Rockin’ in the Juke Joint is an exceptional CD of post-war Chicago blues, and the title cut, “You’re Breaking Me Down,” “Work-ing With Your Mojo,” and “Have Your Fun” are my favorites on this CD.

Johnny is a regular at Lee’s Unleaded Blues on Chicago’s far South Side (also the title of one of his other two Earwig CDs), and his electronic keyboard complements the spot-on lead guitar work of “Al Gui-tar” Short nicely. I’ve never seen a six-foot portable electronic keyboard played like a guitar before checking out Johnny Drum-mer, but in his capable hands, it more than works. Thanks in part to tutelage from Ju-nior Wells early in his career, and Johnny’s own mastery of the Mississippi saxophone, Johnny plays some pretty mean harp parts on this CD, too.

Unleaded BluesEarwig Music - 2001by Maria Bainer For Blues News

I’m Gonna Sell My Cadillac,Buy Myself A Mule/Born In The Delta; I’m Missing You/Stop Cheating/How Many Times/Put Your Suitcase Down/ Anything But Without You/I Feel So Good/You Got Trouble/Se-rious; Unleaded Blues/Fall Out Of Love/Take Care Of Your Homework/Somebody Please Give Me A Job

This second album on the Earwig label is a solid CD from Johnny Drummer, a South Side Chicago

multi-talented musician. Not only is John-ny an entertaining vocalist, he is also a pro-lific songwriter, arranger, and bandleader. In fact, he wrote twelve out of the fourteen

On Rockin’ in the Juke Joint, Johnny’s got a full band that includes Diane Madi-son, Theresa Davis and Kay Reed on back-ground vocals on several cuts, and this CD offers a full, rich, big-band sound that’s a solid counterpoint to the smaller, blues trio format that seems to be gaining steam in many national blues markets. If you’re looking for some great South Side Chicago blues action, look no further than www.johnnydrummermusic.com, and pick up Johnny Drummer’s CDs at www.earwig-music.com

Eric Steiner is President of the Washing-ton Blues Society (www.wablues.org) and a Blues Supporter member of The Blues Foundation (www.blues.org).

“[T]he songs are witty and full of punch, and they span the stylistic gamut from 12-bar postwar shuffles to funk-fla-vored soul-blues.”

- Living Blues

Johnny Drummer, keyboardist, vocalist and bandleader of one of the tightest small combos in Chicago, has long

been known for his high-energy shows in small clubs on the South and West Sides of the Windy City. Rockin’ in the Juke Joint, Johnny’s third Earwig release, offers his humorous takes on male/female relation-ships, in a variety of musical styles - funky blues, contemporary soul, passionate bal-lads and jukin’ dance tunes. Johnny han-dles lead vocals, harmonica, and electronic keyboards, and is backed by a stellar cast of Chicago’s finest musicians. - CD Universe

All songs arranged by : Thessex Johns (Johnny Drummer).

Personnel: Johnny Drummer (vocals) Alvin Short (guitar) Charles Krane (guitar) Walter Scott (guitar) Kenny Barker (piano) Kenny Hampton (bass guitar) Danny O’Connor (bass guitar) Dave Jefferson (drums) Diane Madison (background vocals). Kay Reed (background vocals). Theresa Davis (background vocals).

Audio Remasterer: Blaise Barton.

Johnny DrummerCD Reviews

“Drummer has managed a distinctive sound in a sound-alike idiom…” –Living Blues

“Drummer’s suave vocals, front and center, are rich and full of character…” Blues Revue

ear-catching tracks on the album. These songs could be listed under Johnny’s real name, Thessex Johns.

The songs are an exciting mix of genu-ine blues and R&B ones, rounded out with some love ballads. Many of the songs are about relationships. “Born In The Delta” is perhaps autobiographical. “Somebody Please Give Me A Job” is reminiscent of Boz Scagg’s “Somebody Loan Me a Dime,” but more realistic for the times. In the title track, “Unleaded Blues,” Johnny shows off his piano playing in the only in-strumental in the album. It is a treat to hear music from the CD that isn’t mixed with rock and funk rhythms.

Johnny sings his songs from the heart and thus gives a dynamic presentation. His band is creative and tight. Allen Batts plays an imaginative, strong piano on all the tunes except “Unleaded Blues.” Three different people play lead guitar on the al-bum, and they all add to the continuity and depth of the CD. Liz Mandville Greeson adds some good background vocals on four of the numbers.

This expressive CD is one that is worth adding to your collection. Johnny Drum-mer sings some impassioned vocals. The band gives a solid dimension to the pleas-ant blues and r&b tunes and ballads. Check it out! ...by Maria Bainer, For Blues News © August 2001

Unleaded BluesEarwig Music - 2001

by Dick Houff for Blues On Stage

Every city has that one special per-former that stands apart from the pack. Chicago, on the other hand,

has more than you can imagine. But in Johnny Drummer’s case; I get the feeling that he is truly that one special person.

I’ve caught his shows over the years and always walked away with a feeling of total satisfaction. His stage presence is command-ing, and his personality is heartwarming.

He prefers his own material; soulful and memorable moments-a true romantic with an edge. Johnny can rock the house with his own distinctive Chicago style blues; his ballads and duets with other artists are beyond description-beautiful and sexy-oh yes! it’s all there.

On this second album with Earwig, he takes you into some new turf. The first two songs: I’m Gonna Sell My Cadillac, Buy Myself A Mule, and Born In The Delta, are perfect Chicago styling to the max. It’s quite obvious, that the fourteen tracks on this session were well planned. Drummer is a professional and his arrangements for this session really show-the guy’s a master; mark my words. Well chosen guest artists are always a highlight, and with Liz Mand-ville Greeson (Everyone loves Liz!) shar-ing vocals you get a double threat!

Track #4: Stop Cheating, is worth the price of the disc! But don’t let that throw you off; lend an ear to Track #11: Unlead-ed Blues, an instrumental spotlighting the band-this is the house shuffle for you and your partner! Johnny hits you hard with the following track: Fall Out Of Love, and doesn’t let up.

The last two songs on the disc: Take Care Of Your Homework, and Somebody Please Give Me A Job, are “Top Ten Contenders!” This album is a heavyweight with a whole lot of moves-dig it!

a stronger blues flare and Chicago flavor, Drummer delivers another powerful set of music; penning eleven of thirteen tunes in this can.

Johnny has spent decades honing his vocal chops singing behind the likes of the Aces (Dave Myers, Louis Myers, and Fred Below) and whereever else he could climb astage. He bided time, developing his songwriting, and perfecting his soft and illustrious tenor voice. Drummer and Ear-wig’s relationship with him have brought to light another shining star from the Chi-Town firmament. Earwig’s Michael Frank steps up and calls Drummer a “songwriter under a groove”; a prodigious writer we should hear plenty more from!

Johnny has nothing but pros at the side. Allen Batts is here for the piano, Dave Jef-ferson who is always on Windy City time snares the drumwork, and Felton Crews lays down the unenamoured bass beats. Luther Adams, Chuck Kramer, and An-thony Palmer break up the rhythm and lead guitar action. Liz Mandville Greeson adds her sumptuous vocals to four tracks, Bruce and Michelle Thompson get the back-ground vox on one, and Calvin Tucker puts his congas to one.

Drummer opens with the obstinance of “I’m Gonna Sell My Cadillac, Buy Myself A Mule”. The following tough, deep blues melodies like “Anything But Without You”, “Born In The Delta”, and “I’m Missing You” keep this in the shadow of traditional Chicago blues, but his slant on music finds him using a near reggae beat on “Put Your Suitcase Down”. Nonetheless, it translates as a moving little number. Strong R & B elements come across on cuts like “You Got Trouble” so you see that Drummer has many facets to his presentation on this bis-cuit. Bottom line is: You’ll be glad it’s on your shelf, if it gets outta yer player!

Johnny is a regular at Lee’s Unleaded Blues on Chicago’s far South Side (also the title of one of his other two Earwig CDs), and his electronic keyboard complements the spot-on lead guitar work of “Al Gui-tar” Short nicely. I’ve never seen a six-foot portable electronic keyboard played like a guitar before checking out Johnny Drum-mer, but in his capable hands, it more than works. Thanks in part to tutelage from Ju-nior Wells early in his career, and Johnny’s own mastery of the Mississippi saxophone, Johnny plays some pretty mean harp parts on this CD, too.... Mark Cole is a multi-instrumentalist blues and roots musician based in Gloucester, UK

Unleaded BluesEarwig Music - 2001by Mark A. Cole for Blues On Stage

Chicago, that veritable university of the blues, has graduated an-other bluesman; this time from

the department of the South Side. Singer-songwriter Johnny Drummer (Thessex Johns) has thrown this sophomore hat into the blues ring in celebration. This effort similar to his Earwig debut, It’s So Nice; finds Johnny out there and on time with his South Side soul blues degree. Perhaps with

It’s So Nice - Earwig Music - 1999

This CD is the debut album by Chicago’s long-time bandleader, keyboardist and vocalist Johnny

Drummer, known for over thirty years for leading one of the tightest small combos in the city. Johnny has long bee4n known for his high-energy shows in small clubs on the South and West Sides of the Windy City. With this album of smooth contem-porary soul and blues R&B, Johnny is set to bust out onto the national scene. His knack for catch lyric hooks and funky grooves will please the steppers set, and also provide plenty of mood music for lov-ers. Johnny is joined by Chicago’s “Bar Room Preacher” Jimmy Johnson on lead guitar on several cuts.

This soul-packed effort is urban blues, yet it is resoundingly also modern, soul-ful R&B. Drummer and company have laid down some great music filled with songs of love, romance, and the volatil-ity of those relationships. Good material, clever instrumental mixes and powerful keyboard sounds!” -Big City Blues

The debut disc of bandleader, key-boardist and vocalist Johnny Drummer is filled with solid con-

temporary soul, blues and R&B music, well-played and sung. And well crafted, too, as Drummer (real name: Thessex Johns) is also quite a songwriter, turning in a dozen of the 14 tunes collected on this outing. His knack for a catchy phrases and lyrical hooks coupled with funky grooves and solid instrumental mixes makes this album a real sleeper. Highlights include “I Wanna Get in Your Head, Before I Get in Your Bed,” “I’m Not Gonna Give You Up,” “Knockin’ at Your Door” and the title track. Jimmy Johnson guests on two tracks, but equally notable is the lead guitar work of Jim Simms. A good one for fans of soulful music and mood music lovers as well.“ ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide

This album is very soulful and really nice. The blues that bring a real pleasure. An injection of funk adds some sharpness and volume to its calmful beauty. To describe the album in one word, I would say: delicious! - Midnight Special Blues Radio (Paris, France)

Ear

wig

Music Company

1 9 7 8 - 2 0 0 9 31 Years of Blu

es

Office: (773) 262-0278 Fax: (773) 262-0285

earwigmusic@aol.com www.earwigmusic.com

www.johnnydrummermusic.com www.myspace.com/johnnydrummerthestarliters

email: johnny@johnnydrummermusic.com(773) 519-4141