Kentucky Headhunters remember old friend with new album

CHILLICOTHE — Yielding new, but old material for blues fans, The Kentucky Headhunters will return to perform Sunday night at the 2015 Easy Riders Rodeo.

The band, currently made up by Greg Martin, Doug Phelps and brothers Richard and Fred Young, are back on tour promoting their newest release, with the late piano player Johnnie Johnson, Meet Me in Blues Land — something that the band has had tucked up their sleeve for nearly a decade.

“We couldn’t see doing it without Johnnie, we needed him ... to fly down to Kentucky and play songs on the album with us,” Young said.

Originally, Johnson was just coming to play piano for an upcoming release for the Kentucky Headhunters, but they started playing and jamming together, and simply did not stop. The result, their newest release Meet Me in Blues Land.

The impromptu album with Johnson was recorded in three days. Afterwords, with no set plans to release the recordings, the Kentucky Headhunters turned around and went back to work on yet another album. This particular project with Johnson was put on the back burner for nearly 12 years before rumblings of bringing it back came about.

The time finally came, and it appeared to be worth the wait. Meet Me in Blues Land climbed to the no. 2 spot in the Billboard blues music charts.

Young recalled meeting him at a Grammy party in New York in 1992. Young said that with all the people at the party, Johnson was sitting alone at a table. The band decided to introduce themselves, and the group became fast friends, talking for hours that night.

A year later, the band collaborated with Johnson for the first time, and hit the road together. It was the beginning of a tour that featured a stop in Belmont County at The Jamboree in the Hills, where they played to a crowd of over 30,000 people.

“Even though he was a star, he knew it, and didn’t care. None of the bright lights, big city stuff wore off on him” Young said.

Johnson passed away in 2005 and Young remembers him as a mild-mannered man, but one that brought out the light in others.

“We were fortunate to know him,” Young said, in a release. “He brought something out in you you didn’t know you had.”

If you go...

What: Kentucky Headhunters at the Easy Riders Rodeo Tour

When: Sunday, September 6 at 9:30 p.m.

Where: Ross County Fairgrounds 344 Fairgrounds Rd. Chillicothe

Tickets: $25 - wristband, $120 VIP meet and greet passes

Full Schedule of events available online