Super Chikan

James "Super Chikan" Johnson
performing at the Cognac Blues Passions Festival
Background information
Birth name	James Johnson
Also known as	Super Chikan
Born	February 16, 1951 (1951-02-16) (age 58) Darling, Mississippi, United States
Genres	Blues
Instruments	Guitar
Labels	Rooster Blues, Ruf Records
Website	www.superchikan.com

James "Super Chikan" Johnson (born February 16, 1951, Darling, Mississippi) is an American blues musician, based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson.

Early life

He spent his childhood moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta and working on his family's farms. He was very fond of the chickens on the farm, and before he was old enough to work in the fields, he would walk around talking to them. This led his friends to give him the nickname "Chikan Boy". At an early age, Johnson got his first rudimentary musical instrument, a "diddley bow", which was simply a piece of wood with a piece of baling wire stretched from end to end. As he grew up, he came up with new ways to improve and vary the sounds he could make with it, and finally, in 1964, at the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar, an acoustic model that had only two strings, from a Salvation Army store in Clarksdale.^[1]

Musical career

As an adult, Super Chikan began driving a truck for a living. During the long stretches on the road, he began composing his own songs. When he showed some of the songs to his friends, they convinced him to go a studio and record them. He then started playing with some renowned local musicians, but he decided he would rather perform on his own than try to conform his style to that of his bandmates. He did so, and in 1997 he released his debut album, Blues Come Home to Roost, influenced by such musicians as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry. He went on to release What You See in 2000, Shoot That Thang in 2001, "Chikan Supe" in 2005, and "Sum' Mo' Chikan" in 2007. In the Clarksdale area, he is probably best-known for performing regularly at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero blues club and for being Freeman's favorite blues performer.^[2] He also played support to Steven Seagal's band 'Thunderbox.'

Super Chikan's latest release was Chikadelic, distributed by Ruf Records. It was recorded in Notodden, Norway's famed Juke Joint Studios, and was released at the 2009 Notodden Blues Festival. Super Chikan was backed by Norway's, Spoonful of Blues.

Discography

• 1997 - Blues Come Home to Roost
• 2000 - What You See
• 2001 - Shoot That Thang
• 2005 - Chikan Supe
• 2007 - Sum Mo Chikan
• 2009 - Chikadelic

Awards

• Living Blues Critics Award (5)
• 1998 - W.C. Handy Award Nominee
• 2004 - Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts

References

External links

• Super Chikan's Homepage
• Official Myspace page
• Agent/Mangement page