KNUCKLEHEAD

Two Local Bluesmen Combine to Infuse DC Area with Real Blues

 

by Almost Slim, Jr.

                                                                                                      

Legendary blues guitarist, Johnny Ticktin, lately of Johnny & the Headhunters, has teamed up with blues piano man, Stubby Knuckles, merging their sounds into a hot new blues band called KnuckleHead. Together with their supertight, top secret rhythm section, they plan to take back the area from an outbreak of amateur players giving a bad name to the blues. While not naming any names, Johnny and Stub will soon be walking the talk as they break heads ‘round the town.

Stubby Knuckles

 

Portrait of Two KnuckleHeads

 

Firmly entrenched in the Bethesda area since time immemorial, Johnny Ticktin claims

a blues pedigree that is next to none for a local blues musician.  Way back when

Flora Molton, (then in her 80s) was still playing slide guitar and belting out the blues

on F St. in downtown DC, Johnny got in with Louisiana Red. 

Their band, Nobody’s Children, headed down to play the juke joints in Mississippi,

then made their way to Chicago.  With Sunnyland Slim putting them up at his place on Chicago’s Southside, they were able to play a variety of Chicago clubs and festivals.

 

Back in those years Johnny also played with Albert Collins, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Walter,

Eddie Taylor, Buddy and Philip Guy, Memphis Slim, Nina Simone, Taj Mahal –

just to name drop a few.  His influences also include T-Bone Walker, BB King,

Freddie King, Jimmy Vaughn, and of course the area’s own Bobby Radcliff

and Danny Gatton.  Like Gatton, Johnny plays musical styles ranging from straight

ahead rock ‘n’ roll to rock-a-billy, New Orleans mambos, and soulful bugaloos,

to old rhythm and blues, and country licks.

 

In more recent times, Johnny and the Headhunters played venues all around the DC area,

up in Baltimore and in New York City as house musician for 10 years at the upper east side

hot spot “Manny’s Carwash.”  A few years back the band even played the Kennedy Center,

not to mention festivals in Ocean City and as far away as Montana. 

Having released six highly acclaimed CD projects, Ticktin has charisma on stage,

with a sound that’s exciting, authentic, and totally enjoyable for blues and rock lovers alike. 

 

Stubby Knuckles’s style is reminiscent of the traditional Chicago blues piano sound of Otis Spann or Memphis Slim with a New Orleans twist.  He played around town with Lovey Lee,

Jr.’s Blues Revue (also known as The Honeydrippers) back in the ‘80s. 

Big Joe was on drums for while.

 

Stubby’s played in New Orleans’ French Quarter and at Tipitina’s piano bar in

the twilight years of Professor Longhair.  There in 1980 he opened up for

John Lee Hooker and rubbed shoulders with other blues luminaries. 

After New Orleans, the Knuckleman spent time in Chicago.  Here he made

the acquaintance of Sunnyland Slim and Jimmy Dawkins, among others. 

The Alabama bluesman and gambler, Big Chief Ellis (Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee’s

old piano player) was also friend and a big influence.  He’s played with Black Top

recording artist Bobby Radcliff and has shared the stage with Jerry Portnoy,

member of the late Muddy Waters’ Legendary Blues Band and the harp player

on Eric Clapton’s From The Cradle blues CD.

 

Almost (but not quite) famous by association, Mr. Knuckles continues to be

one of the biggest unknowns in the world’s underground blues circuit. 

“I never practice,” says Stubby, “doing that would take off that raggedy edge,

that falling apart sound.  I’m a time-breaker – that’s the blues.”

 

Often feeling like he is doomed to live the scruffy life of a bluesman, Stubby laments,

“Most people think that blues is all about ‘getting drunk and losing your baby.’ 

It is.  But it’s much more than that too. 

It’s all about reaching way down deep into a wellspring of optimism to find some

peace in this crazy world.  By and large, life is suffering.  And blues music represents

a way of life that urges us to be and become something simpler, better and stronger

– in spite of ourselves.  For me, blues is the soulful, animating essence of sound,

heartfelt meaning adorning the beauty of silence.  How’s that for stating a case

 for the blues?

 

The fusing of these two local blues giants represents a high water mark in a

DC blues wave now lapping the tailcoats of an otherwise gentrified, smart set

that has been subjected for too long to something only going by the name

of “the blues.”  Johnny never disappoints and gets ‘em dancin’ every time;

Stubby guarantees two fistfuls of the blues – when he's on the 88s, you're always

in good hands.  KnuckleHead serves up the real thing – with their knuckles bared

they bust the heads of every other so-called bluesman in town!

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