ACK! I got way behind updating information about Super Chikan! I have videos from his 2011 Juke Joint Festival and 2011
Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival on the way. One of them even features Super Chikan playing a shotgun guitar. Matter
of fact, since I'm already posting, here is the vidoe of him playing a didley-bow guitar made out of a shotgun!
Have also added a nifty Google Trends tracker for the search terms
"super chikan", it's at the bottom right of the page.
Greetings, my name is, Johnny West,
and on this site I hope to reflect the respect I have for, Super Chikan.
I'll include what I know about him, and maybe a few things even he don't know about his self!
Who is Super
Chikan?
Mr.
James Louis Johnson came into the world during the year 1951, in the Mississippi Delta region.
By the age of 6 he had earned a name for himself because of his special understanding of chickens, in which it was his job
to tend to them, because he was not quite old enough to "work the [cotton] fields".
Even at an early
age, he possessed the wisdom of a grown man and realized, "there has to be an easier way to do
this", so he learned how to "talk" like the chickens... and soon ruled
the roost. Other people soon noticed his special ability in handling the yard birds and by the age of 6 gave him the name, "Chikan Boy".
So far, as the story goes, nobody has been credited for giving Mr. Johnson his first guitar, which was a "diddley bow", but it would not surprise me if it was his uncle, "Big Jack Johnson".
By the age of 13, he knew
what he wanted to do in life, and that was play guitar and entertain people. So he went to the Salvation Army store in Clarksdale,
Mississippi, and bought himself an acoustic guitar that had 2 strings on it! It didn't take him long to figure out that
them store bought guitars were not always the best, so he started building his own.
MOVING ON UP
In his early adult years, Mr. Johnson became a taxi driver in the town of Clarksdale and because of familiarity with
the town and his ability to get you there super fast, he sooned earned the name, Super
Chikan.
I'm sure this was also his CB "handle" when he later on made a living as a long haul truck
driver, before he decided to dedicate his life to music... and Folk Art.
HONORS and AWARDS
2004 Mississippi Governor's Award for Exellence in the Arts
2006 Library of Congress featured Artist
2010 Blues Music Award-Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year (Chikadelic)
Delta Bluesman Legend
Status
SUPER CHIKAN NUGGETS
Super Chikan Folk Art Guitars
"I was doing recycling before recycling was a word"
