Fat Possum Records has a knack for finding artists trapped in a another time. Their rediscoveries of Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside helped to renew the blues by bringing it closer to its roots.
In the wake of Kimbrough’s death and Burnside recent health problems, the label has found another standard bearer. James “Super Chikan” Johnson, the son of bluesman Jack Johnson, displays a unique brand of blues, soul and funk that differs from his father’s but never loses the power of the porch. Without a single sample or digital instrument, he has created a down-home party record.
On the title track, which sounds like Superfly living in a tar paper shack, the Chikan puts funk through a country-blues blender. “Ain’t Nobody” and the instrumental “El Camino” capture his take on early-’50s R&B. Super Chikan uses his wonderfully soulful, Ted Hawkins-like voice to hop across styles with ease, even throwing in some yodeling on “Big Boy Now”, a humorous song about his love for country music as a young boy.
With the same time-warped success Kimbrough and Burnside brought to the country blues of Robert Johnson, Super Chikan leads the next generation embracing the R&B form that followed those country blues. In the process, he has made a record that outfunks anything Beck and the Dust Brothers have in their digital bag.