Blues guitarist Johnson wins over audience at Calais show

Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson and his powerhouse band, the Magic Rockers, served up a boiling kettle of raw, in-your-face blues Friday at the third annual International Blues Show in Calais.

Johnson, a long-time sideman for late Chicago blues icons Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) and “Magic Sam” Maghett, has become the leading purveyor of the West Side Chicago-style of blues guitar. He paid homage to his former mentors Friday with powerful, gut-wrenching renditions of Waters’ classic “Mannish Boy” and Magic Sam’s “That’s All I Need.”

Their influence on his guitar style was unmistakable, but Johnson, nevertheless, remains an original. Alternating between a hard pick and his bare fingers, he showed he could napalm hearts with a blazing guitar run or strike a soul-chilling jackhammer blow with a single note.

Forget MTV-style pyrotechnics and effects pedals. Johnson put nothing but bare feeling between “Anna,” his road-scarred and worn Stratocaster guitar, and his aging Super Reverb amplifier, cranked wide open. It was nothin’ but the blues, baby, served steamy-hot, Johnson style.

The Magic Rockers — bass guitarist Buster Wylie from Chicago, drummer Keith “Smitty” Smith from Pittsburgh and keyboardist Eric “Two Scoops” Moore from Boston — opened Johnson’s set with a pair of tight, soul-inspired instrumentals.

Throughout the set, Wylie and Smith, five-year veterans of the band, laid down a lean but mean groove for Johnson to work in. Moore, who joined the band last year, meshed perfectly with Johnson. Although Johnson provided his keyboardist with ample space for soloing, Moore never outstayed his welcome.

Johnson, meanwhile, connected early with his audience. Playing with intensity and conviction, the audience felt and shared the joy, pain and anguish expressed through Johnson’s guitar and his words. What’s more, the audience believed him.

Road-tested and honed on a 43-week-a-year tour schedule, Johnson and his band were razor sharp. Recognizing that his own best efforts depend largely on the strengths or weaknesses of his backing band, Johnson several times asked the audience to applaud the Magic Rockers. From the first explosive notes of “C.C. Rider” and Willie Dixon’s “Let Me Love You Baby” to the closing encore, the audience was Johnson’s.