About Me
Currently, to promote some local shows, I have a confidential blues email list with approximately 3,600 names and emails. If you would like to be on my email list, please send me your email and I will keep you notified as to where I'm performing!
When you bring up my myspace page, the piece playing is called "Hookafied". You CAN double click on the other piece listed right below it which it titled "Sweeter Blues". Both pieces were written by Texas Johnny Boy and Milton Hopkins and were recorded live over KPFT in Houston, Texas, (on the Blueshound's Sunday afternoon show) and were performed just as a duo without a rhythm section. Heck, with the quality of rhythm that Milton Hopkins beholds, he certainly holds down the fort! Please take a listen to both and check back, as I will be adding a few more.
As a musician, I have very little musical schooling and, often, that can be a handicap. But, as a bluesician, the education that I have acquired is through many years of listening and the gathering of experience in the streets. I was born, in 1954, in Big Spring, Texas. I am told, by my uncle, that the musical influences started out when I was real little. He claims that when he would baby sit me, he'd be playing jazz and blues 78's, that were all soaking in, while I was sleeping. Or maybe it was all just rolling off of me like water, I'm not really sure! As a young boy, growing up, i was constantly hearing Mario Lanza records..., so serious singing was always around, including my Grandfather's voice, who was quite the singer in his day and he played the box guitar and mandolino. My Uncle Leo's career (Chicago and Las Vegas), of full time trumpet playing, was an influence too. I believe that one of my biggest influences was watching and listening to all of the Zulu's dance and sing in the early Tarzan movies. This was literally hypnotic! You could not get me to move away from the TV. Yes, music does start with rhythm! At about the age of 10 the so called British Invasion began... and I was exposed to, and was a huge fan of, the entire 60's rock and roll sound. That was a very colorful experience! I used to love to sing with records and with the radio. At the age of 15, I got my first spot, as a VOCALIST, with a band called The Synodical Sound Sytem. That was in Northern California and was a short lived gig. In the late sixties, and early seventies, I was a huge fan of some of the rock bands out there. But, I was always struck by some of those old black cats that would open for them... and I always seemed to gravitate to the more soulful sounds of early R&B, soul, and blues music. I started playing harmonica at the age of 16, started playing the flute at 19, and started playing the saxophone at 25. I worked, for many years, in many different bands, as just a weekend warrior. In my early thirties, I worked with Milton Hopkins and The Hit City Blues Band for a couple years at Houston's infamous, and now defunct, Reddi Room. Upon leaving Milton's band, I had decided to start my own group... It was jump in the deep water and you HAD TO swim brother! So, from the age of 34-39 I had a group in Houston called Johnny Boy & The Kings.... For five years, I advanced to doing 20-30 one nighters a month. This was all done on a small regional level in Texas and Louisiana. I left Houston in 1993 and moved back to the Dallas area and worked extremely part time. Moved back to Houston in 2005 and musical things are just growing and growing again! 53 years old and just loving being back in Houston! Insist on LIVE Texas Blues music! I've performed, several times, with the late John Lee Hooker and Koko Taylor. I've been a featured guest vocalist with the Dallas Jazz Orchestra, have performed with multi W C Handy award winners, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, and have performed on the bandstand with Clarence Holliman, Peppermint Harris, Guitar Joe Hughes, Earl Gilliam, Zuzu Bolin, Texas Johnny Brown, Sam Myers and many other great and REAL bluesmen. They are the ones, of many, that carved the book of traditional American blues music. Besides the, sometimes, failable name dropping, I have always believed that the bottom line is the dues being paid and the quality of blues that I could actually bring to the bandstand. I will pour my sweat all over the floor. In the end, it IS all about soul, substance and conviction to the music that we LOVE to play.
Also, I am a painter/artist of sorts. I do oil on canvas, pinstriping and lettering, am a journeyman sign artist, I do reverse glass and surface gold leaf gilding, have illustrated a few magazine and album covers over the years, and other fun things. I am a serious collector, and seller of, historical ephemera and antique documents and frequently have auctions on ebay. I have an ebay store too. You can cut and paste, the address below, into your address bar...
http://stores.ebay.com/texasjohnnyboy-ephemera_W0QQssPageNam eZl2QQtZkm
The constant vacuum, for me, is learning. The learning about music, art, and life in general, is what keeps me interested,keeps me going forward and keeps me happy. Like the Popeye Chicken lady say...You gotta' love it! Music and art are how I have always made my living! Please check back as I will be adding different live videos of local performances.
I was very fortunate to grow up in a "yours, mine and ours" blue collar family that had TEN children! Since I was raised in the military, this allowed me to live all over the country and in Europe too. I have lived the last 35 years in Dallas and Houston, Texas. Through the school of hard knocks, I have learned that ALL of life, is about choice of attitude. It is not apptitude, but it is attitude that determines altitude. My greatest gift, in life, is that I am a father to a wonderful and beautiful young daughter who is such a fabulous person! As John Lee Hooker would say, "I'm A Lucky Man". Continually, I am very grateful for the life that I have.
Texas Johnny Boy alto sax & Milton Hopkins
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