Johnny Burgin
Finally, it is ready for the Notodden debut for Chicago Blues Master Johnny Burgin. Burgin has been requested by many, and now it is finally ready. Johnny Burgin will play two different concerts at Notodden. It will be a concert with pure old school Chicago Blues where he plays together with the Norwegian blues favorites Jelly Roll Men and a more Stax/soul-blues influenced concert where the Norwegian 2x Spellemann Prize-winning band Billy T Band is the backing band.
Burgin will also do a Master Class for the young people at Little Steven's Blues School. Anyone who follows Johnny Burgin's channel on YouTube, where he posts instructional videos every week, understands what this can mean for young, knowledge-hungry blues students.
Johnny Burgin had a bang year in 2023 with both a nomination for the Blues Music Awards for best traditional blues artist and more than 200 concerts played throughout the United States, Mexico, Japan and Europe. If you had told him this was going to be his career when he was in high school, he wouldn't have believed you.
Johnny grew up in Mississippi and South Carolina and attended the University of Chicago with the intention of becoming a writer. When a friend took him out to a ghetto club on Chicago's West Side to hear the blues singer "Tail Dragger", it was to be a decisive turning point in Johnny's plans for life. Blues interest took hold, and Johnny fell headfirst into the vibrant Chicago blues scene.
Choosing the blues clubs over the library, Johnny Burgin eagerly absorbed the lessons of the blues masters who practiced their craft nightly at Chicago's many blues clubs. Through persistence and practice, Johnny earned a spot in the band for "Tail Dragger," and he began playing with traditional blues veterans such as Sam Lay, Billy Boy Arnold, and Pinetop Perkins. In the late 1990s, Johnny worked regularly in the blues clubs of Chicago under his own name.
After a break from music to take care of his daughter, he resumed his career. He moved to California and the Bay Area in 2016. here he recorded records such as "Greetings from Greaseland", "Neopren Fedora", the Howlin' Wolf tribute "Howlin' at Greaseland" (nominated for a BMA for Best Traditional Blues Recording) and "Johnny Burgin Live," which featured blues legend Charlie Musselwhite and was nominated for a 2019 Blues Blast Best Live Recording Award. Johnny grew into the role of the ever-touring road warrior he is known as today.
Johnny Burgin has recorded 11 albums under his own name, and in March this year the album "Ramblin' from Coast to Coast" will be released on the Danish label Straight Shooter.
In recent years, Johnny Burgin has been a guitar instructor at the Pinetop Perkins Foundation Blues Workshop in Clarksdale, Mississippi and at the Chicago Blues Guitar Workshop. Johnny Burgin has developed a loyal following on his own YouTube channel where he publishes weekly instructional videos on the guitar techniques of various blues guitar greats.
It will be an experience for blues enthusiasts of all kinds to experience Johnny Burgin at the Notodden Blues Festival 2024.