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Donald
Ray Johnson
Friday
January
20, 2006 - SOLD
OUT!!! Intimate evening Dinner and Show at the
Saskatoon Golf & Country Club. Only 96 tickets avaioable.
Tickets $50.oo per person includes Gourmet dinner. Dinner
at 7:00pm SOLD OUT!!!
Saturday
January
21, 2006 - Cabaret and Dance
at the Cosmo Blues Room (11th Street and Broadway Ave)
Tickets $20.00
Tickets
on sale at
- McNally Robinson
on 8th Street
- Vinyl Diner on Broadway
(above former HEL Music)
- MPSfotosource
Motion Picture & Sound downtown on 2nd Avenue
- Long & McQuade Music at
721 43rd St in the North End
Grammy
Award Winner (1979 Best New Artist) and Maple Blues
nominee for Best Drummer and Best Male Vocalist, this
artist is guaranteed to leave you wanting more.
Real Blues magazine CD Review For "Pure Pleasure"
While I love Phillip Walker (the great Texas/West Coast
bluesman) I must admit some of my anticipation for going
to see him play live, (especially when he was coming
to Victoria, BC regularly in the early 1990s), was because
I could always expect Phillip to bring with several
great West Coast/California blues veterans, people like
Nat Dove, Johnny Tucker, Dale Rene, Broadway Thomas
and the great Don Johnson.
Like many Texas blues/R&B players, Donald Ray Johnson
migrated to where the work was and California was where
the action was. We did a story on Donald Ray in WestCoast
Blues Review #9 and despite his youthful age (born
1948) the man has been around! As a highly regarded
drummer and a deep-voiced vocalist, Don got work in
California gigging with people like Charles Brown, Big
Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton, Smokey Wilson, Big Mama
Thorton and of course Phillip Walker but around 1974,
Don got a job with an R&B/Disco outfit called A
Taste Of Honey and with their Grammy Award in 1979 for
'Boogie Oogie Oogie', he went all over the world, (first-class),
with the group.
By 1980 however A Taste Of Honey was kaputs and Don
went back to the Blues in LA with work again in Phillip
Walker's group. Following a serious vision impairment
situation and surgury which left Don near blind, he
went
back to Texas in 1986 and then on to Billings, Montana
to work with old friend and LA blues legend, Dale Rene.
Because of Don's familiarity with Alberta, ( Phillip
Walker has played hundreds of gigs in Calgary and Alberta
over the last 20 years), he had made dozens of good
friends all over the Province, and after a short visit
in 1990, Don became a Calgary-based bluesman.
He put out a fine CD in 1995, 'It Ain't Easy Bein'
Blue', (the excellent title tune is reprised here),
and while he's still the best Texas-shuffle drummer
in all of Canada, (and still for hire!), he's been building
up a big name for himself as a vocalist/keyboardist/songwriter
as well, and he also joins forces with the 3-to-4 dozen
American expatriate blues/R&B players who reside/work
in Canada (Kenny Wayne, Curly Bridges, Wild Child Butler....).
'Pure Pleasure'is, in my opinion, 70% blues/30% R&B
and, the combination for the most part, works. While
many of today's artists could be classified as soul-blues
acts, Don keeps the two genres separate on this disc,
laying down deep Texas/West Coast blues grooves on several
tracks and even offering up a fine gospel number, 'Song
For Perry (Walk Around Heaven All Day)'.
Opening with a bang on 'Slow Down Baby',(killer sax
and trombone by Ralph Moncivais and B.J. Emery respectively)
Donald Ray proves within seconds to be a world-class
Blues talent, (wonderful lady-killing voice, perfect
drumming, and exceptional song-writing). One thing listeners
should recognize right-away is that despite being an
independent, self-produced album, this disc is totally
professional in sound, production, mixing, arrangements.....everything
is high-standard quality control. Johnson has also surrounded
himself with the very best talents and everybody gives
110% for Don, a man they all both love and respect.
Alberta-based allstars include Johnny V. Mills, Ron
Casat, Steve Pineo, Gib Monks, P.J. Perry, Michael Huston,
Rob Vaus and Graham Guest, while U.S.-based players
are the awesomely-gifted Maurice Vaughn and his bandmate,
B.J. Emery. B.C. also contributes Bill Johnson on guitar
and Russell Jackson on bass.
'Gone So Long' and 'Thrilling You, Killing Me' are
superb numbers that will have blues fans everywhere
saying/thinking 'Wow! This guy Donald Ray is HOT!!',
but as great as those tracks are, 'No Guitar Blues'
deserves to be both a huge radio Hit and an all-time
classic/standard. It's one of those humorous, funky,
talkin' blues that work so well (remember 'Don't Go
Reachin' Cross My Plate'?)
'Too Young To Know', performed live with Maurice Vaughn's
band at Blues On Whyte in Edmonton, is a smokin' closer
to this super-fine blues/r&b CD. If anyone ever
tries to tell you that Real, Authentic, full-of-feeling
Blues doesn't exist anymore, just play them 3 or 4 of
the tunes we've mentioned. They will agree with the
title of 'Pure Pleasure'.
We have been hoping Donald Ray Johnson would get the
respect and exposure he deserves as an exceptional blues
talent and now it looks as though he may get it thanks
to this killer disc. 5 Bottles for a collection of material
that truly is an experience in 'Pure Pleasure'. (deejays
everywhere should be pushing 'No Guitar Blues' as Blues
Song Of 2003!!!).
-AGrigg
Real Blues Magazine
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