Are you guys familiar what that name? Are you familiar with his story? I'm just beginning to familiarize myself with it, and it's fascinating.
Kid comes on the scene in the early/mid 80s as a boy wonder, a child prodigy of the blues harp. Not a great player, but a gifted performer. He clearly means what he's playing:
Please paste the following URL into your browser and gaze on blues harmonica stagecraft circa 1986-88:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QraR-Ul634
Hangs in there in the Bay Area blues scene until 1989, then drops out of sight:
Then, as the article suggests, shows up all over again:
Great biker-bar vocals. Not quite the second coming of Little Walter. Excellent energy. In fact, I suspect that Isaacullah might agree with me: REALLY nice song. This is one way that the blues draws the mass audience that Stevie Ray captured. Problem is, all that nice microtonal stuff that we've learned to value just ain't there. But the vocals carry it. Straight A on the rock vocals.
PS: His YouTube channel has six videos, and several of them have been uploaded in the past several weeks. He's re-emerging. Heck: Little John, are you a member here? Please declare yourself, and tell us where you're gigging. You're the rock end of the instrument, but that's OK. We are a big damned tent.
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2012 11:13 AM
Funny you mention this. A dozen years ago there were 3 child harp players at Bean Blossom Bluesfest. Sunny Girl, Mojo Mike and LD Miller all around 9 or 10, all very good. All sat in with the headliners, Snooky Pryor, Willie Foster, Blind Mississippi Morris and others. Sunny Girl is now out of college and still performing occasionally. LD ended up on Americas Got Talent and came in second playing with his brother when he was 11 (the judges told him to ditch his brother and go solo). I've seen some youtube videos of him at Spah in the last few years so he's still at it. Mojo Mike? No idea. I still remember Mojo singing "I got my Mojo workin'" Hilarious.
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2012 8:26 PM
Little John Crisley is a good player. I don't know him. I saw him several times when I first moved to California. He's a very good player. He was a kid in those videos. I haven't heard anything about him except on the Internet in the past 3 or 4 years. He name keeps popping up on the scene periodically, but I haven't seen him in 20+ years.
Todd Parrott started a thread about him awhile back, it was an interesting thread and story. Apparently he eventually burned out for awhile(and had a hard time with drugs and alcohol), due in part from the large amount of pressure from his father. His father was constantly promoting him and trying to turn him into a star. When he grew up he had hard time when he never turned into the huge star that he was led to believe he would become.
My favorite song of his is his remake of "Born in Chicago" called "Born in Rochester"(he recorded this as an adult, not when he was kid). It has some really cool licks and you can really tell that his playing has advanced from when he was a kid. Most so called child prodigies eventually stop advancing because they're constantly being told how great they are. And when they're constantly being told that they're amazing, most of these child prodigies will eventually stop spending hours and hours alone working hard to improve, and simply start resting on their laurels. And when they grow up they no longer have the "kid factor" going for them and their skills just don't stand out among their peers. And this can be a bit of a shock.
That is why I think it's interesting that John Chrisley's playing has matured from when he was younger. Whereas, when I listen to someone like Brody Buster, I can't tell much of a difference between his playing now, and the stuff he was playing as a kid.
I knew him and his father. Another tradgic story of a parent trying to live out their unifull filled life through their child. John was just another little kid with a nice smile that soon became a stage smile. I tried to talk to his father about it a few times but he blew me off saying so and so big names love his kid and he will soon be a superstar.......... I avoided them like the plauge because it was way to sad to be around - a young kid trying to please his father around a bunch of drugs and alcohol and showbizness mental crap. Think about this- how hard is it for most adults to stay sane and sober in the music scene??? Who would want their children around such an environment? Unfortunately the story is one that has been around and will be around forever as long as there are such parents. Kids need to be around their own age group to create. Putting them with adults all the time ruins 99% of them. I have seen this happen too many times and it pushes my buttons because I care about kids. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Pedro: When I say "not a great player," I'm holding him to the highest standards. Actually, I'm saying the following: I don't think he deserves inclusion on this website's honorable mention list. But he has quite a bit of technique. In that first video, as a kid, he'd gotten a lot of the basic Chicago vocabulary. But compared with a guy like Nic Clark, who plays with subtlety and power and DOES deserve mention, at this point, on my list, he's not a major player. But he's a very charismatic performer.
I realize my stringency about such things can be offputting. If I heard you play, I might well say, "Hey, great stuff." I'd mean it, too. And if I heard you and thought, "I really have nothing to teach that guy," because you pretty much had everything figured out, I'd say that, too. When I listen to Chrisley, I hear all kinds of things that need work. I don't hear him as the second coming of Christ. But that's how he was being depicted by those promoting him--and that was hype, based more on his charisma as a performer than on his harp playing per se. I see him as a pretty good rock-blues player and a notably charismatic rock-blues performer. The first video shows a kid who COULD, if properly guided, have become a serious blues player, but that's not what happened.
As for who and where he is now, after all the hard times he's been though: I have no idea, really. I'd like to know what he's doing. He might surprise us all.
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2012 9:47 PM
Wow man you'd have so much to *more* to teach me, I say more because I've already learned tones from you online! Shame can't attend the clinic in London. But will watch the gig!
But yes, I wish he had had the right guidance as a kid because h played with so energy and soul.
I would also like to know what he's doing now, hope he's still playing harmonica! ---------- Cheers, Pedro
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2012 10:13 PM
i think that after 25? years john chrisley has refined his playing considerably. he obviously had all the raw material.
i would like to think that today he could go toe to to with just about anyone. it's too sad to think that he is stuck in 1986 hyper harp land; the amazing magic dick leading the pack.. i'm not even going to consider it. ----------
MP doctor of semiotics and reed replacement.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
