Bill Johnson (blues musician)
| Bill Johnson | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | William Lloyd Johnson |
| Born | Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Origin | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Genres | Blues |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician, music educator |
| Instruments | Guitar (acoustic, electric, lap slide), vocals, flute, harmonica |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Labels | Independent, Woodrock Music Canada |
| Associated acts | Doug Cox, Donald Ray Johnson, Rita Chiarelli, Suzie Vinnick, The Bill Johnson Blues Band |
| Website | BillJohnsonBlues.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Guitar | |
Bill Johnson (born Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer-songwriter, and music educator. After a long career as a sideman and guitarist, in the 1990s he began touring with The Bill Johnson Band. They released their second album, Live, in 2006, which led to Johnson being nominated for Best Guitarist at the Maple Blues Awards. He self-released his third solo album, Still Blue, in 2010, which was nominated for Blues Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2012. Johnson continues to tour, and has hosted blues workshops throughout Canada.
William Lloyd Johnson was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Two years later he and his family moved to Ottawa, Ontario. He comes from an artistic family, and his mother is Dorothy Oxborough, a notable painter from Victoria, British Columbia. At an early age Johnson would listen to his older brother's collection of blues records, and he has cited his earliest musical interests as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and in particular Chuck Berry. Johnson has stated, "Chuck Berry was the one that did it for me. Chuck made me want to play guitar." Johnson moved with his family to Victoria when he was nine years old. Uprooted from his friends, Johnson began playing guitar that year, soon excelling in his music classes. He started working as a professional guitarist at age fifteen, and spent most of his teens playing local gigs and studying guitar.
Bill Johnson played with a number of different bands throughout the 1970s and 1980s, not sticking to one particular genre. In the mid-1980s, however, he began to focus on the blues, studying musicians such as B.B. King, Elmore James, and T-Bone Walker. He also performed with artists such as Alligator Records’ Son Seals. In the 1990s he played with the Sidewalk Blues Band with Doug Cox, and in 1993 formed his own The Bill Johnson Blues Band. Early on, the band opened for musicians such as Otis Rush and Delbert McClinton, and toured Scandinavia with the Lebeau Petersen Band.
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