A Life in Blues: Strand Theatre Presents James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson documentary

VICKSBURG, Miss. – The Strand Theatre will feature the documentary A Life in Blues this Wednesday at 7 p.m., followed by a live performance by James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson, the subject of the film.

A Life in Blues both celebrates and explores the personal and musical life of one of Mississippi’s most treasured sons, James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson. Having travelled the world sharing his own unique brand of blues music Johnson, at the age of 73, still strives to balance a musical career while providing for his family. This film endeavors to not only lay bare Chikan’s own story, but also examines how the culture and setting of the south has ultimately influenced his journey.

Super Chikan was born James Johnson in Darling, Mississippi on February 16, 1951. He spent his childhood moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta and working on his family’s farms. He was fond of the chickens on the farm, and before he was old enough to work in the fields, he would walk around talking to them. This led his friends to give him the nickname “Chikan Boy”. At an early age, Johnson got his first rudimentary musical instrument, a diddley bow. As he grew up, he came up with new ways to improve and vary the sounds he could make with it, and in 1964, at the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar, an acoustic model that had only two strings, from a Salvation Army store in Clarksdale.

See the trailer for the documentary here.

This program is free to the public.