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uper Chikan got that name, he says, because growing up in rural, sharecropping Mississippi, he became really good at imitating chickens and talking to them. Later, James Johnson fine-tuned other gifts — pulling sound from just one or two strings, then rolling Delta Blues on six strings, and making the guitars himself.

James Johnson with the guitar he made to go with his stage name, “Super Chikan”. Johnson performed for Pamlico Middle School students Friday afternoon, in advance of his Pamlico Musical Society show Friday night.

On Friday, James “Super Chikan” Johnson brought those guitars and his guitar playing to Pamlico County. He and his band served up the blues in an evening show at Oriental’s Old Theater.

Earlier that afternoon, he appeared – solo – for a shorter performance for the students of Pamlico County Middle School where he played several of his homemade guitars, and talked about talent and the blues

James “Super Chikan” Johnson mid-court at the Pamlico Middle School gym’s basketball court. In the stands were students from the school.

Taking Blues To Middle School

Pamlico Musical Society had arranged for “Super Chikan” Johnson’s afternoon show as part of its ongoing community series of workshops. the blues.

Set up in the middle of the gym floor, the blues player had five of his homemade guitars arrayed around him.

One was shaped like a rooster, another like a Delta airplane and yet another made from a cigar box. If there was any doubt that a cigar box can summon up the sound like a train, “Super Chikan” Johnson showed how it could be done.

He played the guitars he made. James Johnson brought 5 hand-made guitars. The one at left was fashioned from a cigar box.

Roots of the Blues In Mississippi

The blues, Johnson told the students, come from the lives of sharecroppers and from slavery. But he added, “everybody has the blues.”

Playing the music that carries that name was a way to “get it off your chest.”

“Times go easier that way,” he said.

“Super Chikan” Johnson is 61 and said that as a child, he had started out not with six strings, but just one. Growing up in a sharecropping family in rural Mississippi, his first instrument was a “diddley-bow” — a piece of wood with one or two wires stretched up its length.

Back then, he said, he didn’t know his family was poor. It was simply, he said, “the way of life. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

James “Super Chikan” Johnson warms up before a short performance and workshop for students at Pamlico County Middle School’s gym.

That said, there were consequences. As sharecroppers’ children, school was often out of reach.

“You’re fortunate,” James Johnson told the Pamlico Middle School students. “We wanted to go to school but couldn’t. You guys can, but some of you don’t want to.”

James “Super Chikan” Johnson and the “gui-jo”. It resembles a banjo but is a guitar. The round banjo look resulted from using a ceiling fan motor cover for the body. Johnson says he’s been recycling before he knew what recycling was.

Recycling To A Different Life

His family was so poor, he said, that “I was recycling before I knew what recycling was.” He learned to make guitars out of recycled parts — a cigar box, a ceiling fan motor cover. Though it looked like a banjo, it had a six string guitar neck. He called it a gui-jo.

Over time, they began to sell, fetching a thousand dollars here, three thousand dollars there.

“I had no idea that being poor would create these guitars,” Johnson said. Nor did he know that playing them would mean “travel around the world.” His tours have taken him to Africa and Europe as well as three performances at the White House.

(Super Chikan Johnson on Robert Johnson and talent, next page.)

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Kin and Kindred Spirit in Robert Johnson

He spoke of blues guitar legend Robert Johnson, the game-changing musician who is credited with transforming the blues with a style of play he gained after purportedly “making a deal with the Devil” at a crossroads in Mississippi.

Kaleidescopic, multi-colored blues. “Super Chikan” Johnson’s hand-made gui-jo. The guitar resembling a banjo was made from the center of a ceiling fan.

Johnson grew up in that same area of Mississippi, and is related to Robert Johnson – his grandfather, also a blues player, was first cousin to the famous bluesman.

“Super Chikan” said Robert Johnson did not make a pact with the Devil. Instead, he said, Robert Johnson just went off by himself to learn to play because he was trying to get it right. The resulting music, he said, was the result of a deal “with himself and God.”

Playing the cigar box guitar. With a slide, Johnson pulled the sound of a freight train from the diminutive guitar. (A passenger on board might have been Hendrix.)

Talent and Persistence

James Johnson himself took a similar path in at least one respect. He told the students that to play the guitar the way he wanted to, and not create a sound someone else wanted from him, took some doing. He worked by himself, til he thought it might “sound good to someone else.” (His first album was released about 14 years ago, when “Super Chikan” Johnson was in his mid-forties.)

Playing the blues with a smile. James “Super Chikan” Johnson at the middle school gym. He told students they each had a talent, that the blues were a way of getting things off their chest, and that a smile was the secret weapon, as well.

Over the gym’s speakers, “Super Chikan” Johnson asked, “Are you listening?”

The bluesman paused as the middle school students quieted. “Every one of you has a God-given talent. You can do it,” he said. “Don’t let anyone discourage you.”

James “Super Chikan” Johnson transformed a cigar box in to a guitar, but as he was to show….

… it still fulfilled its original function — of holding a cigar. (He did not divulge that to the students, but showed it after the school performance.)

Posted Monday November 19, 2012 by Melinda Penkava