Living Blues awardee, Jazz, Soul and Blues singer Bruce “Mississippi” Johnson first heard Gil Scott Heron’s music back in 1981 while living in Kinshasa, Zaire. Inhabited by a real passion to sing professionally Bruce found in Gil’s voice a register similar to his own and this fuelled his passion.

His passion motivated him to learn and cover some of Heron’s biggest hits during his first solo performance on stage. Bruce’s appreciation of Heron’s music never waivered.

“The relevance of GSH’s music today just shows us how much work is still left to be done and what better way to contribute to that work than by paying homage to the man, the poet, the author in an evening of his music”.

Born in Mississippi the heart of the musically fertile area that is America’s ‘deep south’, Bruce Johnson is a man who was born to sing. As a child in his grandfather’s church, and later, in the company of his father’s record collection, he got the kind of musical education most folks can only dream about. Listening to soulful voices like Al Green, his cousin Jackie Wilson, Lou Rawls and Gil Scott Heron, Bruce discovered he could sing.

Bruce has a voice of his own, one that straddles soul and rhythm & blues, as at home singing the songs of Little Milton, Gil Scott Heron or Bobby Blue Bland as he is with his own heartfelt songs.

Bruce Mississippi Johnson is a force to be reckoned with.

Band line up :

Geoff Dunn - drums

Carl Standbridge - bass

Carl Hudson - keys

Pat West - guitar

Bruce Mississippi Johnson - voice

“I’m excited about this gig because it takes me back to my first real time on a professional stage back in the motherland. Revisiting these songs with 40 years of life experiences and a deeper understanding of what his music means to me makes it all the sweeter!”