The North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center presents an evening of blues in the lovely outdoor amphitheater with Rockin’ Johnny Burgin and Aki Kumar.
Guitarist Johnny Burgin came to Chicago from South Carolina to attend the University of Chicago, and earned the name “Rockin’ Johnny” as a DJ at the college radio station WHPK. Rockin’ Johnny began playing in the ghetto clubs of Chicago’s West Side with blues singer Taildragger, and then began touring nationally as a sideman with former Howlin’ Wolf drummer Sam Lay and blues piano legend Pinetop Perkins.
After learning from the masters, he put his own band together. Things started happening for the Rockin Johnny Band after they took a Monday night residency at The Smoke Daddy in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Their original, energetic approach soon made them a strong local draw week after week and year after year, bringing in blues afficianadoes, every musician in town, and a younger crowd that normally didn’t go to hear blues bands.
Iglauer, Alligator Records: “Rockin Johnny delivers the raw, rough-edged spirit of real Chicago blues”.
Aki Kumar is a rising star among the next generation of SF Bay Area blues artists. A master of the amplified Chicago blues sound, Kumar inherits his style from the harp legends of the 1950s and 60s. Aki has a unique voice in the blues, blending elements of blues harmonica pioneers of yesteryear with a signature sound of his own.