Samantha McCartney
Staff Writer
James “Super Chikan” Johnson had no problem getting down on his knees and yelling out a “cocka-doodle-doo!” to entertain the crowd at the Richmond Folk Festival this past weekend.
The 61-year-old Mississippi delta blues singer hammed it up to the crowd, while simultaneously posing for pictures.
Growing up moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta, Johnson would work on his family’s farms to get some extra money. He became most fond of the chickens on the farm, and as a child would walk around and talk to them. Because of this, the name “Chikan Boy” was bestowed upon him.
After becoming a truck driver as an adult and playing with other bands, “Super Chikan” began to record and write songs. He is known to be a favorite at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero blues club and for being Freeman’s favorite blues performer.
His sound takes people back to the time when blues was new. Between the deep tone of his voice and the high pitched twang of the diddley bow, Mr. Chikan’s music is reminiscent of the music of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
“He sounds just like the old southern blues records my dad used to play around the house,” VCU student Tia Smith said at the festival.
Mr. Chikan gave the crowd a little bit of blues history before his last song of the night by taking out a diddley bow. “It’s every blues musician’s first instrument,” he said.
He demonstrated how the diddley bow was different from a guitar by putting his finger under the strings to get a strained, soul lifting sound.
“You have to play with a slide,” he told the crowd. “Back when I was a boy, we didn’t have no slides so we used old bottles and things we found around.”
Super Chikan and his band The Fighting Cocks had the crowd in an uproar. Almost everyone was dancing, with strangers dancing with strangers coming, all together to just enjoy his music. Super Chikan only encouraged it by occasionally yelling “Shake that thang!” at the crowd.
“Every time we get good, we run out of time!” Super Chikan told the crowd after his 45-minute set, but he didn’t leave stage without shouting out his signature “cocka-doodle-doo! And that means I love you.”