Folklife Database: Interview and music performance with blues singer (Blind) Johnny Brown

Item Type:	Sound
Series Number/Title	S1576
Container
Item	Audio recording
Item ID Number	T78-316 - T78-317 (T81-20)
Item Title	Interview and music performance with blues singer (Blind) Johnny Brown
Program/Event	North Florida Folklife Project
Date/Date Range	05/10/1978
Collector/Fieldworker	McCallum, Brenda McCallum, Stephen
Tradition Bearer	Brown, Johnny, 1910-1986
Ethnicity/Nationality	African American
Genre/Occupation	Blues singers Guitarist Musicians
Title of Work	Good Morning Baby (T78-316) I Will Be Glad When You Are Dead You Rascal Good Morning Blues I am Glad When My Baby Went Back Home I am a Stranger Here Nobody Likes Mexico Like I Do Thats Alright Lord He has Got the Whole World In His Hands Precious Lord, Take My Hand I am Going Away Mama Blues Come From Texas Good Morning Baby -- There Is a Black Snake In My Room Unidentified song Baby, You Dont Treat Me Right Co Co Mo Blues Honey Dont You Worry Unidentified song Baby Dont Leave Me Now Baby Please Dont Go Sitting On Top of the World Lordy-Lord My Gal Gonna Leave Me Decatur Street Walk Mama, Mama Dont You Let Me Lordy-Lord My Gal Gonna Leave Me (alternate version) Precious Lord, Take My hand (T79-317) By and By Lord My Baby Told Me She Dont Love Me Road Rider Song Baby You Dont Even Have to Go Going to Newport News To Take That Battleship Across the Sea Glory, Glory Hallelujah Lord, Have Mercy On Me My Baby Gone My Mama Done Told Me John Henry (two versions) Me and My Baby You Got to Bottle It Up and Go Rag Time You Got to Bottle It Up and Go Thats Alright Lord By and By Lord
Subject	Interviewing Interviews Music performance Blues (Music) Blues singers African Americans Guitar Guitar music Guitarists Musicians Religious music Religious songs Gospel (Black) Fieldwork
Place Name	St. Petersburg (Fla.) Pinellas County (Fla.)
Corporate/Conference Name	Florida Folklife Program
General Note/Comment Field	Two reel to reels. (A copy of a portion of the interview & performance can be found on T81-20.) Recorded at the Neighborly Center in St. Petersburg. Brown was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1910, and came to Florida in 1925. Born with no vision abilities, he learned the guitar while living in Norfolk, Virginia. He learned both bleus and gospel songs from records, as well as by Blind Lemon Jefferson. In the recording, Brown demonstrates several gospel and blues songs on his resonator guitar,, and talks in between the songs. Topics include his childhood; living in Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, New York, and Georgia; types of blues; learning the guitar; influences for his music including Furry Lewis, Jefferson, Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Dennis, and Jimmy Reynolds; segregation and racism; marriage; reading Braille; slide guitar techniques; and gospel music. For an earlier interview with Brown, see C77-7 through C77-9. . The song "That’s Alright" by Johnny Brown is available on the Blues page.

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