Johnny Shines
(b. 1915, Frayer, Tennessee; d. 1992, Chicago, Illinois)
Johnny Shines was in Willie Dixon’s All Stars along with Big Walter Horton, when the band was touring Canada in the early 1970s. Shines recorded two significant albums, that had talented young Edmonton musicians playing on them. Bob Derkach of Hot Cottage played bass on the album “Worried Blues Ain’t Bad”. The other album, titled “Too Wet to Plow” which was said to have been recorded in just two days in September 1975 with Ron Rault on bass, Sugar Blue on harmonica and Louisiana Red on guitar. Steve Boddington tells how Johnny Shines showed him how to play slide guitar with open tuning, and got to jam with him when he was invited to the Hovel in 1974. He was very generous with his time and insights, according to Boddington. Shines was greatly influenced by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and more than willing to pass it on to the young Edmonton talent. To illustrate the overlap between Horton and Shines, Horton played harp on two Johnny Shines releases, “Evening Sun” and “Brutal Hearted Women”. The last time Johnny Shines performed in front of an Edmonton audience was at the 1991 Edmonton Folk Music Festival with his wife Candy Shines. His daughter Caroline Shines established The Johnny Shines Blues Foundation in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2010.