Nicknamed the “Sweetheart
of the Blues” by the staff at
BLUE
CHICAGO, Shirley has been gracing the stage here since the 1990s with her
spectacular performances.
Like so many
African-American vocalists, Shirley Johnson started out singing in church and
then went on to embrace secular music. The Chicago resident, whose influences
range from Mahalia Jackson to Koko Taylor, Etta James, and Ruth Brown, is a
gritty, big-voiced blues singer who can also handle soul and gospel. Although
Johnson has spent much of her adult life in Chicago, the Windy City is not her
hometown; she was born in
Franklin, VA and raised in Norfolk, VA. Shirley came from a very religious
family and was only six when she
started singing gospel in a church choir.
When Shirley
reached adulthood in the late '70s, she pursued a career in secular music and
made her presence felt in Norfolk's blues and R&B circles. She went on to
become an opening act for Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Z.Z. Hill, and other
well-known artists who were passing through town. In the early '80s, she
recorded some singles for two regional labels in Virginia and those recordings
caught the attention of a man who was planning to start a label in Chicago. The
aspiring record man expressed interest in recording Ms. Johnson and sent her a
plane ticket to Chicago, but when she arrived in the Windy City she learned he
didn't have enough money to pay for a session.
Nonetheless, she
decided to remain in Chicago and became active on the city's blues circuit,
where she has performed both Blues and Soul. The musicians she worked with in
Chicago included Little Johnny Christian, Artie "Blues Boy" White,
and keyboardist “Professor” Eddie Lusk (who was a staple at BLUE CHICAGO and
took Johnson on the road with him on international tours.)
Since the '90s, Johnson has made many
recordings and in 2000 is one of the vocalists recorded on
BLUE CHICAGO’s CD
entitled “Mojo Mamas.”