THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701230102
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: John-Henry Doucette, Correspondent
LENGTH: 71 lines
Musicians' musicians fill hometown clubs with great noise, and sometimes grow up there, waiting for the hand of fate to push them into a bigger pond.
Henry M. Johnson is such a guitarist.
He plays a unique blend of jazz and blues on his baby, a blonde Guild guitar he ordered from a catalog nearly 25 years ago. It has seen him through a handful of bands and two solo recordings.
With a family to support and bills to pay, Johnson holds down several jobs, teaching guitar and gigging with his trio.
At 43, he knows every musician can't get the big break, no matter how good they are. That's the way it is. But night after night Johnson straps on the Guild.
He hasn't given up on music.
``There's been a lot of interest lately,'' said Johnson. ``This year has been good for us.''
He knows the H.M. Johnson Trio, featuring bassist Carlton Lillard and drummer Steve Giove, makes good sounds. Lillard, who favors a six-string bass with a neck about as wide as a small shelf, shares vocal duties.
Ryan Krebs, a Johnson student, believes his teacher is the best gun in town. Krebs said, ``This is a guy who's got his own private fan club of professional musicians.''
That's why bluesman Gibb Droll's sidemen, Mike Williams and Kevin Hamilton, spent their last Friday night catching Johnson's show at a packed Blue Room in Virginia Beach. And why Gibb himself showed up the night before.
When Henry Johnson was 17, a singer overheard him jamming in a music store and recruited him to play in a Virginia Beach band. Johnson relocated from the Eastern Shore, where he was raised and, at 13, picked up the guitar. The Beach band did not last long, but Johnson had found his calling.
Johnson may be best known here for his stint in the '80s and early '90s with the Rhythm Kings, a seminal rhythm and blues outfit that has a strong local following.
Two years ago, Johnson released ``Everybody Wants Control of You'' on Trashmore Records. ``Control'' found radio play on 130 blues and jazz stations across the country, and the trio formed soon after.
Complete with horns and a heavy swing feel, the record followed up Johnson's 1980 release ``Feel It,'' which was reviewed by Guitar Magazine as ``a real winner.''
But after backing singer Delbert McClinton on a cruise ship showcase in 1995, Johnson found himself back in Hampton Roads.
Compared to ``Control'' and The Rhythm King's big band sound, the current trio is stripped down, with a set list that jumps from ``Mustang Sally'' to George Benson instrumental jazz classics to The Beatles.
``Fun'' is what Johnson calls the trio.
The trio plays Winston's Cafe in Chesapeake this weekend. A benefit at the Naro Expanded Cinema is coming up in March.
And the H.M. Johnson Trio will keep plugging away.
Henry repeated a story a friend told him. The friend plays with bluesman Boxcar Willie, who hit it big after years of paying dues. As the story goes, Boxcar was stuck in the small time until he landed a gig with Slim Whitman, the country crooner and yodeler. The pay got better, and Boxcar bought himself his own theater. He plays a couple shows a day, and that's it. He does all right.
That would be okay, said Johnson. Your own theater where you could play your own music.
``Something will happen,'' said Johnson. ``I do believe that my best is yet to come. I really do.'' MEMO: The H.M. Johnson Trio plays at Winston's Cafe in Chesapeake
tonight and Saturday. ILLUSTRATION: Photo