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Johnson, Lonnie
1 articles on Johnson, Lonnie
Johnson, Lonnie
Source: African American National Biography
Word Count: 1458 Includes: Further Reading(8 Feb. 1889?–16 June 1970), singer and guitarist, was born Alonzo Johnson in New Orleans, Louisiana. His parents' names are not known. His father was a string-band musician, and Lonnie first learned to play the fiddle, then the six- and twelve-string guitars, mandolin, banjo, string bass, piano, and harmonium. Dropping out of school in about 1902, he performed regularly around New Orleans in the Storyville red-light district with his father, his brother James “Steady Roll” Johnson, and Punch Miller.In 1917 he sailed to London with a (now unidentified) musical revue, returning in 1919 to find most of his family wiped out by the influenza epidemic. From 1920 to 1922 Johnson was based in St. Louis, during which time he appeared with Charlie Creath's Jazz-O-Maniacsaboard the Mississippi riverboat SS ...
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