Johnny Nicholas (born 1948) is an American blues

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

. He is most noted for being a member of the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

winning group,

Asleep at the Wheel Asleep at the Wheel is an American Western swing group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception, released over twenty albums, and has charted mor ...

Biography

Nicholas grew up in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, where he formed his first band, The Vikings. The band performed

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

s of popular

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed p ...

hits of the time, along with songs by the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

. In the mid-1960s, he formed the Black Cat Blues Band with Duke Robillard, Fran Christina and

Steve Nardella Steve Nardella (born June 26, 1948, in Providence, Rhode Island, United States) is an American blues, rock and roll, blues rock and rockabilly guitarist and singer. The ''Allmusic'' journalist, Cub Koda, described Nardella as a "strong, American ...

. Around 1970, he formed the Boogie Brothers with Nardella. After attending the

Ann Arbor Blues Festival Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is a music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that started in 1972 from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which itself began in 1969. Although the festival has had a tumultuous history and suspended operations in 200 ...

in 1970, the band eventually moved on to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

in 1972 per-request of

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were an American rock band founded in 1967. The group's leader and co-founder was pianist and vocalist George Frayne IV, alias Commander Cody (born July 19, 1944 in Boise, Idaho, died September 26, 2021 ...

. By 1974, Nicholas had moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

and began playing with Big Walter Horton. During his time in Chicago, he would record music with Horton, Boogie Woogie Red and Robert Lockwood, Jr. In 1974, he created his own single, "Too Many Bad Habits" for Blind Pig Records. Moving to

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, he formed his own band, Johnny Nicholas and the Rhythm Rockers, which included Kaz Kazanoff on

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

, Terry Bingham on drums, Sarah Brown on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

and Ronnie Earl on

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

. Nicholas began his stint with

in 1978, when the band asked him to perform with them. During his off time, he would travel to various cities for solo shows, but would often visit

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

to play with Link Davis and

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

accordion player Nathan Abshire. By 1980, however, Nicholas decided to take time off from music in order to raise a family. Since 1981, Nicholas and his wife Brenda have owned and managed a roadside restaurant (formerly a

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasol ...

) called the Hill Top Café near

Fredericksburg, Texas Fredericksburg (german: Friedrichsberg) is the seat of Gillespie County, in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 Census, this city had a population of 10,530. Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 and named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. ...

. After fathering three boys, Nicholas returned to recording blues music with Johnny Shines and

Snooky Pryor James Edward "Snooky" Pryor (September 15, 1919 or 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his ...

on the album ''Back to the Country'' in 1991. Since then, he has released one studio album and three live albums on Topcat Records while also returning to regular live shows.

Discography

*1978: ''Too Many Bad Habits'' - Blind Pig *1988: ''Broke Again'' - Hill Top Records *1994: ''Thrill on the Hill'' - Antone's *2001: ''Rockin' My Blues to Sleep'' - Topcat *2005: ''Livin' with the Blues'' - Topcat *2006: ''Texas All-Star: Big Band Bash'' - TopCat *2012: ''Future Blues'' - Bona Dea Music *2012: ''The Golden Triangle: Swamp Blues'' - TopCat *2016: ''Fresh Air'' *2017: ''Too Many Bad Habits - Rerelease'' *2020: ''Mistaken Identity'' - Valcour Records

References

External links

Nicholas's official site

Future Blues Digital Downloads site

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Johnny 1948 births Living people American blues guitarists American male guitarists Guitarists from Texas Guitarists from Rhode Island Contemporary blues musicians American blues mandolinists American blues pianists American male pianists American blues harmonica players 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Blind Pig Records artists