Editing Johnny Shines

{{Short description|American blues musician (1915–1992)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{use American English|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox musical artist | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians -->
| name                = Johnny Shines
| image               = Johnny Shines, Chicago Blues Festival 1991.jpg
| caption             = Shines performing at the 1991 Chicago Blues Festival
| image_size          = 
| background          = solo_singer
| birth_name          = John Ned Shines
| alias               = 
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1915|4|26}}
| birth_place         = [[Frayser, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1992|04|20|1915|04|26}}
| death_place         = [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]], U.S.
| instrument          = {{hlist|Guitar|vocals}}
| genre               = Blues
| occupation          = 
| years_active        = 1932–1992
| label               = {{hlist|[[Chess Records|Chess]]|[[J.O.B. Records|J.O.B.]]|[[Vanguard Records|Vanguard]]}}
| associated_acts     = 
| website             = 
| current_members     = 
| past_members        = 
}}
'''John Ned Shines''' (April 26, 1915&nbsp;– April 20, 1992)<ref name="AMG">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-shines-mn0000204714/biography |author=Huey, Steve|title=Johnny Shines: Biography |publisher=[[AllMusic]].com|access-date=May 27, 2009}}</ref> was an [[Americans|American]] [[blues]] singer and guitarist.

==Biography==
Shines was born in [[Frayser, Tennessee]], today a neighborhood of [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]].<ref name="AMG"/> He was taught to play the guitar by his mother and spent most of his childhood in Memphis, playing [[slide guitar]] at an early age in [[juke joint]]s and on the street.<ref name="AMG"/> He moved to [[Hughes, Arkansas]], in 1932 and worked on farms for three years, putting aside his music career.<ref name="Hammond">Johnny Shines interviewed by [[John Hammond Jr.]] in ''[[The Search for Robert Johnson]]'' (UK, 1991).</ref> A chance meeting with [[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]], his greatest influence, gave him the inspiration to return to music.<ref name="AMG"/> In 1935, Shines began traveling with Johnson, touring in the United States and Canada.<ref name="AMG"/> They parted in 1937, one year before Johnson's death.<ref name="Hammond"/>

Shines played throughout the southern United States until 1941, when he settled in Chicago.<ref name="russell"/> There he found work in the construction industry but continued to play in local bars.<ref name="AMG"/>

He made his first recording in 1946 for [[Columbia Records]], but the takes were never released.<ref name="russell"/> He recorded for [[Chess Records]] in 1950, but again no records were released.<ref name="russell"/> He kept playing with blues musicians in the Chicago area for several more years. In 1952, Shines recorded what is considered his best work, for [[J.O.B. Records]].<ref name="AMG"/> The recordings were a commercial failure, and Shines, frustrated with the music industry, sold his equipment and returned to working in construction.<ref name="AMG"/>

In 1966, [[Vanguard Records]] found Shines taking photographs in a Chicago blues club, and he recorded tracks for the third volume of ''[[Chicago/The Blues/Today!]]''.<ref name="AMG"/> The album became a blues classic, and it brought Shines into the mainstream music scene.<ref name="AMG"/> Shines toured with the Chicago All Stars alongside [[Lee Jackson (blues musician)|Lee Jackson]], [[Big Walter Horton]] and [[Willie Dixon]].<ref name="AMG"/>

Shines moved to [[Holt, Alabama]], in [[Tuscaloosa County]], in 1969. Natalie Mattson, a student at the University of Alabama, learned that he was living in the area and invited him to play at a campus coffee house, the Down Under, which she ran. Shines played there on several occasions and brought his friend, blues artist [[Mississippi Fred McDowell]], to perform with him. These were some of his earliest appearances in Alabama after his move there. He continued to play the international blues circuit while living in Holt.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/21/obituaries/johnny-shines-dead-delta-blues-singer-76.html | work=New York Times | title=Johnny Shines Dead; Delta Blues Singer, 76 | date=April 21, 1992}}</ref>

{{quote box|quote="Born in 1915, Shines is the most vigorous surviving practitioner of acoustic [[Delta blues]]. With his intense vibrato, his observant, imaginative, yet tradition-soaked lyrics, and his incomparable slide guitar, he ought to be recorded once a year by the [[Library of Congress]]."|source=—''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]'' (1981)<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: S|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=S&bk=70|access-date=March 12, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>|width=22%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Shines toured with [[Robert Lockwood, Jr.]], Robert Johnson's stepson, another one of the last living original [[Delta blues]] musicians.<ref name="russell"/> In 1980, Shines's career was brought to a standstill when he suffered a stroke.<ref name="russell"/> He later appeared and played in the 1991 documentary ''[[The Search for Robert Johnson]]''. His final album, ''[[Back to the Country (Johnny Shines album)|Back to the Country]]'', with accompaniment by [[Snooky Pryor]] and [[Johnny Nicholas]], won a [[Blues Music Award|W.&nbsp;C. Handy Award]].<ref name="AMG"/><ref name="russell"/>

In 1989, Shines met [[Kent DuChaine]], and the two of them toured for the next several years, until Shines's death.<ref name="Duchaine">{{Cite web |title=Kent DuChaine & Leadbessie |url=https://www.kentduchaine.com/ |access-date=2021-01-12 |website=Kent DuChaine |language=en}}</ref>

Shines died on April 20, 1992, in [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]].<ref name="AMG"/> He was inducted into the [[Blues Hall of Fame]] later the same year.

According to the music journalist Tony Russell,

<blockquote>Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth. When Shines came back to the blues in 1965 he was 50, yet his voice had the leonine power of a dozen years before, when he made records his reputation was based on.<ref name="russell">{{cite book
| first= Tony | last= Russell | year= 1997 | title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray | publisher=Carlton Books | location= Dubai | page= 166 | isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}</ref></blockquote>

==Discography==
{{expand list|date=July 2015}}
*''Last Night's Dream'' ([[Warner Bros. Records]], 1968)
*''Johnny Shines: Blues Masters vol. 7'' (Blue Horizon Records, recorded May 1968)
*''Johnny Shines with Big Walter Horton'' ([[Testament Records (United States)|Testament Records]], 1969)
*''Willie Dixon: I Am the Blues'' (November 1969)
*''Standing at the Crossroads'' (Testament, 1970)
*''Sittin' on Top of the World'' ([[Biograph Records]], 1972)
*''Chicago Blues Festival 1972'' ([[Black & Blue Records]], 1973)
*''Johnny Shines & Co.'' (Biograph, 1973)
*''Johnny Shines'' ([[Advent Records]], 1974)
*''[[Too Wet to Plow]]'' ([[Blue Labor Records]], 1977)
*''Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop!'' ([[Rounder Records]], 1978)
*''To Wet To Plow'' ([[Tomato Records]], 1989)
* ''[[Back to the Country (Johnny Shines album)|Back to the Country]]'' ([[Blind Pig Records]], 1991)
*''Traditional Delta Blues'' (Biograph, 1991)
*''Mr. Cover Shaker'' (Biograph, 1992)
*''Skull & Crossbones Blues'' (High Tone, 2003)
*''Johnny Shines: The Blues Came Falling Down - Live 1973'' (Omnivore Recordings, 2019)

==See also==
*[[Chicago Blues Festival]]
*[[J.O.B. Records discography]]
*[[List of blues musicians]]
*[[List of Chicago blues musicians]]
*[[List of Delta blues musicians]]
*[[List of slide guitarists]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Cole, Barry M. "Johnny Shines: The Great River". ''Blues Revue: The Blues Authority'', no. 65 (March 2001), pp. 21-22.
*''Blues Who's Who'', [[Sheldon Harris (music historian)|Sheldon Harris]], Da Capo, 1979, {{ISBN|0-306-80155-8}}
*''The Search for Robert Johnson'', John Hammond, Columbia Legacy, 1982, {{ISBN|0-7389-0079-6}}

==External links==
* [http://www.wirz.de/music/shines.htm Illustrated Johnny Shines discography]
* [http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/folklife/folklife_cd2.cfm 1977 live recording of "Kind Hearted Woman"; from the Florida Folklife Collection, the State Archives of Florida]
*[http://www.john-meekings.co.uk/jshines.html Fan biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725112914/http://www.john-meekings.co.uk/jshines.html |date=July 25, 2008 }}
*{{IMDb name|0793919}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shines, Johnny}}
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Delta blues musicians]]
[[Category:Chicago blues musicians]]
[[Category:Electric blues musicians]]
[[Category:American blues singers]]
[[Category:American blues guitarists]]
[[Category:American male guitarists]]
[[Category:American slide guitarists]]
[[Category:American street performers]]
[[Category:African-American guitarists]]
[[Category:Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee]]
[[Category:People from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama]]
[[Category:Blues musicians from Alabama]]
[[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Alabama]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Illinois]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Tennessee]]
[[Category:Black & Blue Records artists]]
[[Category:Biograph Records artists]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]