John Primer
John Primer
John Primer (born March 3, 1945, Camden, Mississippi) is an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and guitarist. He fell in love with the blues in infancy when his father and an elder cousin played guitar and sang at night after a hard day in the fields. His mother subsequently moved to Chicago in order to secure a job and support her family. She promised to bring John and his sister to the big city when they reached age 18, leaving them with their family. Depressed and lonely, young Primer frequently went into the neighboring woods, where he cried his troubles away and began singing the blues in solitude. He eventually built himself a diddley bow on the side of his grandmother's house out of broom wire, two nails, and a brick and began accompanying himself as he sang, eventually playing for dimes and quarters in his schoolyard. After listening to Jimmy Reed, Little Milton, B.B. King, Albert King and Muddy Waters on his grandmother's record player, his biggest dream was to play alongside Muddy Waters one day.
He played guitar at Theresa's, a club in Chicago, between 1974 and 1980. He was influenced by Muddy Waters' former sideman, Sammy Lawhorn, who taught him to play slide guitar. Primer joined the Chicago Blues All-Stars of Willie Dixon in 1979, then Muddy Waters's band until the latter's death in 1983. Then he joined the Teardrops of Magic Slim and began a solo career on Wolf Records.
In 1995 he released, "The Real Deal", with songwriting and singing techniques showing the influence of both Dixon and Slim.
In 2013 and 2014, Primer had a nomination for a Blues Music Award in the 'Traditional Blues Male Artist' category.
(John Primer at 10th annual Poconos Blues Festival 2001)