Mystic Chiefs Johnny Ray Jones

• 1 Automatic (feat. Carl Sonny Leyland) 03:35
• 2 Trying to Get Back on My Feet (feat. Junior Watson) 03:37
• 3 Devil Woman (feat. Junior Watson) 04:57
• 4 Don't Go No Further (feat. Junior Watson) 03:09
• 5 Shake Your Hips (feat. Carl Sonny Leyland) 04:51
• 6 I Wish You Would (feat. Junior Watson) 02:29
• 7 I'm Ready (feat. Junior Watson) 03:37
• 8 No Fightin' (feat. Junior Watson) 05:10
• 9 Sugar Sweet (feat. Carl Sonny Leyland) 03:20
• 10 My Younger Days (feat. Carl Sonny Leyland) 03:35
• 11 I'll Be Around (feat. Junior Watson) 04:02
• Total Runtime 42:22

Info for Mystic Chiefs

Mystic Chiefs, blues shouter Johnny Ray Jones’ third studio album, isn’t just a forcefully sung, heatedly played slice of contemporary blues. It marks the recording debut of vocalist Jones’ exciting all-star band, likewise known as the Mystic Chiefs, and also serves as a scorching look back at Southern California’s storied blues ’n’ roots history.

Recorded, like its predecessors, at Johnny Lee Schell’s Ultratone Studios in Studio City, California, the new recording features some well-traveled and highly skilled SoCal players. Lead guitarist Junior Watson co-founded the Mighty Flyers and was featured in Canned Heat and late harp ace William Clarke’s band. U.K.-born Carl Sonny Leyland has performed regularly with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys and has cut his own solo records. Harp player Tex Nakamura succeeded Lee Oskar in the hit-making L.A. unit War. Bassist John Bazz was a founding member of Downey’s revered Blasters. Percussionist Stephen Hodges is renowned for his drumming and percussion work with Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, and the late James Harman. J.R. Lozano recorded with his father’s storied East L.A. group Los Lobos’ Grammy-winning album Native Sons. And rhythm guitarist Schell’s many credits include work with Bonnie Raitt (including her multi-platinum 1989 commercial breakthrough Nick of Time), Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Etta James, and Ronnie Wood.

Front man Jones has been slugging it out Southern California’s stages since the ‘80s, when he first got seduced by the romance of the blues.

“I started sneaking into shows in Redondo Beach in the late ‘70s,” Jones says. “I was kind of a loner in the area. My friends were all into hard rock then, heavy metal, but I was already tired of that. Like everybody else, I wanted to know who wrote those songs recorded by the Animals, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, bands that I grew up with. I wanted to know who McKinley Morganfield was, who Willie Dixon was. I got into John Lee Hooker after I bought a cassette of his hits; he’d get it going with just his feet and a guitar. He became a big influence. I was into the roots of it all. I realized that all these bands that made it started with the blues.

“I was 19 or 20 years old, and a guy named Butch Mudbone took me over to see Sam Taylor at Taurus Tavern in Venice. They had a blues jam every Sunday. I sat in there. I guess Sam wasn’t feeling good and took the day off, but his guitar player Coco Montoya took over that night, and guitarist James Armstrong was also there. So the first song I ever sang on stage in a bar was with those amazing guys. I started going there every Sunday, and Sam started trading me singing lessons for driving him to recording sessions and gigs. I began working at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach and started seeing the quality touring musicians. Then I starting going to the blues after-hours clubs and recruiting different musicians and bringing them to some of the beach clubs and bars.”

Jones has been on the blues road ever since. He has released two previous albums, Feet Back in the Door (2017) and Way Down South (2021); sung beside legends like Big Joe Turner, Phillip Walker, and Lee Allen; and played on bills with John Mayall, Leon Russell, Jeff Healy, Janiva Magness, Walter Trout, the Knitters, and the Blasters.

For Mystic Chiefs, Jones has chosen to emphasize the classic blues material that has long formed the bedrock of his show, performing songs originally recorded by or associated with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Slim Harpo, and Joe Hill Louis with top-shelf local players.

“I was putting together a new band that I wanted to use in the studio for this project,” Jones says, “and I named the album after the band that I’d just started. I named it Mystic Chiefs because they’re all really the best in their field, as solo artists and in the various bands that they’ve been in.”

Five of the album’s 11 tracks are drawn from the club repertoire of the Red Devils, the rocking ‘90s band fronted by singer-harp player Lester Butler; the group cut a celebrated live album, King King, recorded at the titular L.A. club where they held down “Blue Mondays,” and recorded an unreleased album backing Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Jones — like guitarist Watson, who played with the Blue Shadows, an early incarnation of the Devils — was himself a part of the Devils’ legendary legacy.

“I used to sit in back then at the King King on Monday nights,” Jones recalls. “That was just what you did. You knew where the party was. It was fun — you never knew who was going to drop in. Lester would take a break and let me sit in and sing a tune. If I got lucky I got to do two.

“We’d do some of the Red Devils’ stuff live. I was actually going to get Paul Size, the Red Devils’ guitarist, to play on the session, but it didn’t pan out., so I went in with Junior and had Johnny Lee do the rhythm guitar. Stephen Hodges was going to play drums, but he ended up doing percussion — he ended up going out on the road. I knew J.R. knew the songs, so I brought him in on drums.”

Jones adds of the other members of the group, “I first saw Sonny play piano with James Harman at the Blue Café in Long Beach back in the ’90s. Gene Taylor of the Blasters was originally going to be playing on the album, but he passed and I had to find somebody who fit that bill, could work in that style, and it just all clicked. Tex worked in my band Moondogg for the last five or 10 years. I’ve been seeing Bazz’s band the Blasters since the ‘80s.”

Mystic Chiefs thus represents the latest stop on a blues continuum — from the work of ‘60s Chicago-bred musicians like Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, and Barry Goldberg, who learned at the feet of the Windy City masters, through dedicated Southern California players like James Harman, the Blasters, the Red Devils, and Johnny Ray Jones himself, who learned their own craft from the elders and carried the music into the 21st century. The music endures. Enjoy the ride.

Johnny Ray Jones, vocals
Junior Watson, guitar
Johnny Lee Schell, rhythm guitar
Carl Leyland, keyboards, harmonica
John Baxx, bass
Stephen Hodges, percussion
JR Loxano, drums

Johnny Ray Jones
“Front man Jones has been slugging it out Southern California’s stages since the ‘80s, when he first got seduced by the romance of the blues. “I started sneaking into shows in Redondo Beach in the late ‘70s,” Jones says. “I was kind of a loner in the area. My friends were all into hard rock then, heavy metal, but I was already tired of that. Like everybody else, I wanted to know who wrote those songs recorded by the Animals, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, bands that I grew up with. I wanted to know who McKinley Morganfield was, who Willie Dixon was. I got into John Lee Hooker after I bought a cassette of his hits; he’d get it going with just his feet and a guitar. He became a big influence. I was into the roots of it all. I realized that all these bands that made it started with the blues.

“I was 19 or 20 years old, and a guy named Butch Mudbone took me over to see Sam Taylor at Taurus Tavern in Venice. They had a blues jam every Sunday. I sat in there. I guess Sam wasn’t feeling good and took the day off, but his guitar player Coco Montoya took over that night, and guitarist James Armstrong was also there. So the first song I ever sang on stage in a bar was with those amazing guys. I started going there every Sunday, and Sam started trading me singing lessons for driving him to recording sessions and gigs. I began working at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach and started seeing the quality touring musicians. Then I starting going to the blues after-hours clubs and recruiting different musicians and bringing them to some of the beach clubs and bars.” Jones has been on the blues road ever since. He has released two previous albums, Feet Back in the Door (2017) and Way Down South (2021); sung beside legends like Big Joe Turner, Phillip Walker, and Lee Allen; and played on bills with John Mayall, Leon Russell, Jeff Healy, Janiva Magness, Walter Trout, the Knitters, and the Blasters.”

This album contains no booklet.