Johnny Rawls

Rawls was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.Some sources cite Columbia, Mississippi, as Rawls' birthplace. He was taught the rudiments of guitar playing by his blind grandfather, and also played the saxophone and clarinet in high school in Purvis, Mississippi. Having mastered guitar playing by his mid teens, Rawls' schoolteacher arranged for him to back musicians who were touring through Mississippi, such as Z. Z. Hill and Joe Tex. In the mid 1970s, Rawls joined O. V. Wright's backing band, became his music director and played together with Wright until the latter's death in 1980. The band then continued billed as the Ace of Spades Band for another 13 years, and toured and performed with other musicians over this time span. These included B.B. King, Little Milton, Bobby Bland, Little Johnny Taylor, and Blues Boy Willie. The band included the guitarist L.C. Luckett, and he and Rawls jointly released two albums including the 1994 album, Can't Sleep At Night, on Rooster Blues.Rawls also produced and played guitars on Willie Cobbs 1995 album ‘Down To Earth’.

His debut solo album, Here We Go, was released on JSP in 1996. The Allmusic journalist, Thom Owens, noted, "Rawls has a powerful, soulful voice which can make mediocre material sound convincing."{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=here-we-go-r272759|pure_url=yes}}|title=Here We Go > Overview |access-date=December 23, 2011 |publisher=Allmusic}} Rawls also worked as an arranger and record producer for JSP. Further JSP releases included Louisiana Woman (1997), My Turn to Win (1999), and Put Your Trust in Me (2001), although by the time the latter was issued, Rawls had set up his own label, Deep South Soul. Rawls appeared on the cover of the Living Blues magazine in April 2002, where he was described as "a soul-blues renaissance man".{{cite web|url=http://www.catfoodrecords.com/bios-discography.html|title=Johnny Rawls and The Rays|publisher=Catfoodrecords.com|access-date=December 23, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216130205/http://www.catfoodrecords.com/bios-discography.html|archive-date=December 16, 2011}} The 2005 release No Boundaries, on Catfood Records increased his profile.

His 2006 album Heart & Soul, was nominated for a Blues Music Award for 'Best Soul Blues Album of the Year'. In the same year, the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame named him 'Best Vocalist'. Rawls has performed several times at the Chicago Blues Festival and regularly at music festivals each year in the US and Canada. He has toured Europe on many occasions as well as in Japan and Australia. Red Cadillac (2008), Ace of Spades (2010) and Memphis Still Got Soul (2012) all won the Critics Choice Award for Best Album of the Year in Living Blues. He has also been honored, along with Little Milton and Tyrone Davis, with a Blues Trail Marker in Hattiesburg. The title song of Rawls 2009 album, Ace of Spades, was a tribute to his one time mentor, O. V. Wright. The album also garnered Rawls with his first Blues Music Award for 'Best Soul Blues Album of the Year'.{{cite web |url=http://blues.about.com/od/cddvdreview1/fr/Johnny-Rawls-Memphis-Still-Got-Soul-2011.htm |title=Johnny Rawls - Memphis Still Got Soul (2011) |author=Reverend Keith A. Gordon |date= |publisher=Blues.about.com |access-date=December 23, 2011 |archive-date=January 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105232426/http://blues.about.com/od/cddvdreview1/fr/Johnny-Rawls-Memphis-Still-Got-Soul-2011.htm |url-status=dead }}

Rawls album Memphis Still Got Soul, was released in April 2011, his fourth album for Catfood Records. It was nominated for 2012 Blues Music Award for Soul Album of the Year, the title song for Song of the Year and Rawls for Male Soul Artist of the Year, his third nomination in that category. With a further reference to Wright, the album's track listing included Rawls cover of the song "Blind, Crippled and Crazy", which was originally associated with Wright. His 2012 release, Soul Survivor, included another Wright song, "Eight Men Four Women". It was nominated for Soul Blues Album of the Year and Rawls was again nominated for Male Soul Artist of the Year at the 2013 Blues Music Awards. His 2013 release on Catfood Records, Remembering O.V., a tribute to O.V. Wright, featured Otis Clay as a special guest. Remembering O. V. was nominated for 2014 Soul Album of the Year and Rawls for Male Soul Artist of the Year, his 11th and 12th Blues Music Awards nominations.

In 2019, Rawls moved to Ohio's Third Street Cigar Records and since recorded four albums for the label, including I Miss Otis Clay (2019), Where Have All The Soul Men Gone (2020) and Going Back To Mississippi (2022). At the 40th Blues Music Awards ceremony in 2019, Rawls' first album for Third Street, I'm Still Around (2018), was named as the 'Soul Blues Album of the Year'.

He is a prolific songwriter with over 100 of his songs recorded.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-rawls-mn0000246173/songs|title=Johnny Rawls - Songs|website=AllMusic|access-date=20 June 2019}} Rawls undertook co-production duties on all of his albums issued on Catfood Records, as well as on Barbara Carr's Keep The Fire Burning.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/keep-the-fire-burning-mw0002401526/credits|title=Keep The Fire Burning - Barbara Carr - Credits|website=AllMusic|access-date=20 June 2019}}

• List of soul-blues musicians

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.johnnyrawlsblues.com Official website]
• [http://www.soulexpress.net/deep1_2014.htm#johnnyrawls A January 2014 interview with Johnny Rawls at Soul Express]

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Category:1951 births

Category:Living people

Category:American blues singers

Category:American male singers

Category:American blues guitarists

Category:American male guitarists

Category:American music arrangers

Category:Soul-blues musicians

Category:Record producers from Mississippi

Category:Songwriters from Mississippi

Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi

Category:Musicians from Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Category:Guitarists from Mississippi

Category:People from Columbia, Mississippi

Category:20th-century American guitarists

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:American male songwriters

Category:People from Lamar County, Mississippi