Johnny Copeland - The Three Sides Of Johnny Clyde Copeland (1993)

Throughout 1988 and 1989 Johnny Copeland made a video tor Home Cooking. Countless hours of concert footage of Johnny & his band, the Texas Blues Machine, were taped, as were several interviews and a special solo performance featuring Johnny an acoustic guitar. The results were edited down to a one-hour music-documentary video that was weil received throughout the blues world and is still available frorn Home Cooking and its distributors. The present CD presents the music portions of the video, which incidentally were separately recorded at the time on 4-track and digital equiprnent with this purpose in mmd. OnIy the parts which wouldnt make much sense without the visual element have been eidted out for this CD.
For the main thing is Copeland‘s music, of course! If you cant see hirn an the video or in person at one of his many shows, this discs the next best thing to beinbg there. Born into poverty, the sone of sharecroppers in Depression-era Louisiana, young Copeland would have surely laughed had anyone told hirn that he‘d someday be recognized worldwide as the ‘ambassador of the blues.“ And not just any blues, but the Texas Blues at that! The road to such as achievernent was not easy tor Johnny. When he was six his father deserted the family and died soon afterward. His mother took Johnny to Arkansas but the backwoods proved too small to contain his restless soul. While still a teenager he moved to Houston, Texas and made his horne in the Third Ward, an inner-city neighborhood notorious tor its bustling and sometimes dangerous night-life. lt wasnt long before Johnny hooked up with Joe Guitar Hughes and Iearned
the instrument. Joe rnustve liked what he heard because he invited Johnny to join his newly forrned band, The Duke of Rhythm. This combo played many night spots in the area, from the best to the seediest, and stayed in existence into the 1 960s.Meantime, Johnny Copeland–-or Johnny Clyde, as friends called hirn, referring to his middle name–-launched into his own recording career with typical enthusiasm. He made Iiterally dozens of discs for rnany labels, including Mercury, Paradise and others, and did a lot of session work as a guitarist an other artists records. Johnny enjoyed his first hit in the early ‘60s with Down On Bending Knees, but real success was not to come till almost twenty more years had gone by. Through unflagging effort Johnny was signed by a major booking agency in New York City and the world became his oyster. A series of best-selling blues alburns on the Rounder label helped propel hirn over the top, followed by a W.C. Handy Bluesrnan of the Year Award, a Grarnrny and an indefatigable schedule of concerts and festivals around the globe.The present album captures the essence of Johnny Clyde Copeland in performance, being compiled, as was previously mentioned, from concerts in Houston, Corpus Christi and Memphis. Truly a master guitarist, Johnny is also quite a showman, bringing every crowd to their feet and working them with the zeal and expertise of an old-time circuit preacher. Blues fans will want to listen and enjoy, while there are quite a few younger bluesmen who will listen and learn.

1. Cut Off My Right Arm 5:50
2. When Rain Starts Falling 5:53
3. Nobody But You 6:37
4. Texas Party 5:31
5. As Real As It Gets (Commercial) 1:12
6. Short Interview (#1) 1:32
7. Daily Bread 2:47
8. Acceptance of "Bluesman Of The Year" 0:15
9. Shuffle In C 1:58
10. Johnny's Gone 4:35
11. Short Interview (#2) 0:59
12. I'm A Boogie Woogie Man 3:21
13. My Woman Has A Black Cat Bone 8:00