JOHNNY RAWLS - feature

	December 1999


		by Art Tipaldi
Bubbling just under the surface of deep Delta blues is righteous Southern soul: "Sweet Soul Music," "Try a Little Tenderness," "The Dark End of the Street," "You Send Me." Johnny Rawls feels at home in either world. "I'm one of the few artists around today who's still recording that kindof music," said Rawls. "I'm talking about the soul music from the 1960s like James Carr, O.V. Wright and Z.Z. Hill. You don't hear that kind of music recorded anymore. The Southern soul I grew up hearing has more of a gospel soul Motown smoothed out the gospel soul and dressed it up to reach larger audiences. I'm here to put the edge back and sing that raw gospel soul." Growing up near Hattiesburg, Miss., Rawls was weaned on Wright, B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye. "I was listening to the real deep soul and hearin' the voice before anything else," he said. "I'd get a chance to not only hear all these great singers on the radio, but I'd also see them all the time on the chitlin circuit." At 14, Rawls was hired as a guitarist by his school band teacher, Carl Gates, to back soul legends like Hill, Joe Tex and others who toured thorugh Mississippi. "Seeing all the people comin' out to hear the reocrds they've been buying and playing was truly something unforgettable, something that stays with you forever," said Rawls. Rawls became Wright's guitarist and bandleader in the mid-'70s, and touring the chitlin circuit put him in the soul-blues highway's fast lane. "When youre on those big chitlin shows, you were always in stiff competition. Everybody was ready, so when game time came, you had to be ready, too." Rawls also learned a business lesson while touring the circuit: Get your money up front and in cash. "We had Sugarman, a singer in the band, whose job was to hold the money during the show. Sometimes, at the end of the weekend, [he] might have $5,000 cash hangin' out of his pocket." Some promoters paid a deposit and tried to keep the rest. Once, in Baton Rouge, Rawls watched Wright try to win the band's money back from a promoter in a backroom card and dice game. Headliners shared bnds on chitlin circuit gigs, so Rawls' band also backed Z.Z. Hill. "It was all the years of being onstage with these greats that things happened naturally in me. I never tried to imitate O.V. or Little Johnny Taylor; it just happened. I'd be singing and I'd remember how O.V. woud turn his head or old his hands, and I found that those touches would come naturally to me." Wright's death in 1980 hit Rawls hard, though today another sorrow nags. "It halways bothered me that these men who were such great singers were never recognized by the music world outside the chitlin circuit. These three very talented men, Wright, Hill and Taylor, were never known outside that circuit. Those guys never played to a white audience. Never. That's amazing." After Wright's death, Rawls tried to strike out on his own as The Johnny Rawls & L.C. Luckett Band, but few knew who he was. When he changed the name to the O.V. Wright Band, business boomed. For 13 yers, Rawls and Luckett thrived on the Southern soul circuit, opening for B.B. King and Little Milton and touring with Taylor, Ann Peebles, Latimore, Blues Boy Willie and other soul greats. When Rawls met Jim O'Neal in 1994 and recorded Can't Sleep at Night with L.C. Luckett, it was the white music world he impressed with his invigorating brand of gospel blues. Then in 1995, Rawls took his 30 years of experience and jumped full force into the soul-blues waters. His JSP debut, Here We Go, has the soul feel Rawls learned from his years of working with Wright. His second JSP release, Lousiana Woman, marries his blues guitar with the gospel-tinged vocals associated with '60s soul. His most recent release on JSP, My Turn To Win, offers a contemporary mixture of influences, producing a fresh, spirited soul sound that redefines the genre. "My goal is to put out soul music right," said Rawls. "I didn't get this off a record yesterday. This is the music I learned from the masters." Rawls has two important supporters who recognize and encourage him to expand his potential: John Stedman of JSP Records, who gave Rawls the chance to write, record and produce, and Bruce Feiner, his songwriting partner. "John is like a dream come true for me. I can call him directly, and I know what he tells me is gonna hapen. The first recording happened when Bruce Feiner told me John might be interested. Me and Lonnie Shields got a two-record deal. I produced mine. It's been straight up all the way since then." As he's toured the country, Rawls has become somewhat of an A&R man for Stedman's label. Not only does he find new talent, but Rawls goes into the studio as a producer, bringing out the best in an artist. He also writes many of the songs they record. Working with a diverse group of musicians, Rawls has learned one crucial principle: "The balance for me as a producer is to not destroy confidence, [but to] bring out the best. I work well with people because people respect and trust me. When I produce, I let every artist be themselves. I dont try to make them Johnny Rawls. I see what they can do, make them feel relaxed and let 'em go." Rawls and Feiner have become an extremely competent, albeit unorthodox songwriting team. Much of their writing happens over the phone. "The other day, I was ridin' and I thought of the line, 'I took your picture from the wall/I put them all away.' I called Bruce and sang it to him over the phone. I was in Nashville the next night after a gig, and he called, saying, 'Johnny, I got the hook. I got the music for that line.' That's the way it happens." Feiner concurs. "He'l call me from the road and listen to what I've got and suggest changes. After a bunch of phone calls and changes, we reach an agreement. We're both good writers individually, but we're better together. We lock in so quickly because we respet each other as artists, and we write from the heart. It's in our soul. He's not afraid to tell me anything, because we don't take it personally. It's nothing to do with ego." "We're always very honest with each other," added Rawls. "If there's something we don't like, we don't get offended at all. Instead of my music being strictly chitlin music, he gives me the other ingredients I need. When I tried one of his songs, I began to feel the groove he was talking about. Bruce has got a deep groove. We put both our styles together and it's becoming a powerful force – my chitlin soul with his groove." Perhaps the most impresive thing about Johnny Rawls is the multitude of talents he possesses. Most would be thrilled to have a voice as expressive as Rawls', but he artist doesn't stop there: he also has the studied guitar approach, assured writing skills, expert production touch and dead-on arranging instinct necessary to qualify him as today's consummate soul-blues professional. "I love playing my guitar, but I want to put out a great song that people can listen to and appreciate. I come from the era when a song was very important. I don't want my records to be full of guitar licks and nothing else. Nowadays, a lot of people are focusing on guitar virtuosity, and they're forgetting that the message is in the song. I'm trying to bring back the message. A guitar's never sold a million records. The song sells the record." Blues Revue