These are the liner notes from Tutu Jones' 1994 debut CD on JSP Records, I'm For Real. Since these were written, Tutu has proven that title was no brag. He soon moved up to Bullseye Blues and his first CD for them was nominated for a W.C. Handy award.
Johnny Jones Jr, better known as Tutu, has been playing the blues around Big D for quite awhile. I first saw Tutu at a typical Sunday night jam session. From the very first note, Tutu had my full attention. He has that certain undefinable "something". That thing that separates a great blues man from all the rest. You might call it soul, heart, or feel. Whatever it is, Tutu's got it. I interviewed him in 1993 for Jam Magazine and Texas Blues Magazine.
I was born on September 9 right here in Dallas, Texas. I got the nickname Tutu by my Daddy. He just decided that would be my nickname so I've been called that since I was 2 or 3 months old. My dad, Johnny B. Jones, is a blues guitar player. My mother's brothers were blues musicians, too. Curly "Barefoot" Miller is another uncle, so blues runs in our family. They always had their equipment around so I grew up around music. I actually started out playing with my uncles. One night when their drummer didn't show up they decided to come get me. My uncle said "I know one person who can make it!" and he came and got me. That's how I started out playing in the clubs. I was only about 5 or 6 at the time. They had to sit me up on Coca Cola cases so I could reach the cymbals. I got payed out of the tip jar and it seems like I made more money back then than I get now! We were playing anything by Jimmy Reed, Howlin Wolf, Little Walter, Freddie and Albert King, Junior Parker, Bobby Bland, and all that stuff. I was around that atmosphere all the time. My mother used to play all those records and it just got in my head.
I started doing music full time about 1976. That's when my uncle started letting me work with them steady rather than just gig by gig. My mother told him "You just take care of my son". If he'd keep me out of trouble in the clubs it was alright with her. During the summer it kept me pretty busy. My mother still wouldn' let me do too much during the school year but I played a lot during the summer. I've been hanging out in clubs ever since. It gets in your blood. My uncle's band was called L.C. Clark and the Four Deuces. He had a day job so we didn't tour. During that time there was a bunch of clubs jumping. You could go from corner to corner back then. Someone was playing every night.
One of my other uncles passed around 1979 and he left me all his equipment. He wanted me to keep on with music cause he thought I could grow into it and make something out of it. I was working with my daddy around then and we named the group Father and Son. We played for my uncle V.C. for a couple of months down on Lamar. After leaving my dad's band I hooked up with R.L. Griffin. He's got a place today down on Meadow called R.L.'s Blues Palace. I ended up with him in the spring of 79 with his group The Dallas City Superstars. That's also where I started playing with Little Joe Blue. I already knew all of them from way back cause my daddy was working with them. That's really when I started playing professionally. R.L. took us out on the road quite a bit. People like Joe Blue or Z.Z. Hill would need a band, so R.L. would open up, and then we'd back the main act. We were still working with Z.Z. after he got hot with "Down Home Blues". We worked a lot with Little Milton, Al "TNT" Braggs, The Coasters, Barbara Lynn, I could go on and on. We did a lot of traveling, even flew a lot. Places like Kansas City, San Antonio, Austin, New Orleans, all over. A lot of the travel was with Z.Z. Hill. That song got him booked all over the country. We opened a show for Tyrone Davis with 10,000 people down in Killeen. We played everything from stadiums to shotgun shacks. The small places were always a lot of fun cause we'd just pack them in! Working with R.L. was a great experience. It really gave me my professional start.
I was still playing drums at this time but I started messing with guitar around home. The guitar thing really came about when we played the Bronco Bowl one night. I was working with Joe Blue around then and he was getting dressed, getting ready to go on. I did most of the warm up singing and M.C. work while I was with Joe. He heard me messing with his old Gibson while he was changing clothes and doing his primping. I was running through a couple of chords and hard notes and he said "Man, you need to throw those sticks down and start playing guitar more often". So right there it hit me. Within a few months I was doing just what he told me. I was going out to the jams, sitting in with the other cats and playing guitar a lot. I still didn't own an electric guitar. I just had a box guitar at the house. Before I knew it, guitar was my thing. Joe Blue was the one that really got me started on that.
We left R.L. back in the early 80's and renamed the band the LMC Showband. I was already working a little with another group, The Energy Showband, working on my guitar. Guitar in one band, drums in the other! We were still backing other people and traveling quite a bit until I left in April of 1989. That's when I started "Tutu and the Right Time Showband". Pretty soon I was opening for folks like Clarence Carter and Denise Lasalle so I guess it payed off. It's still trying to pay off now! I'm going to do like Curly "Barefoot" Miller says, "I might give out, but I ain't never going to give up".
I've been writing my own songs for 4 or 5 years now. I usually write out the lyrics then put the chord changes on tape so I won't forget anything. It's all about playing from the heart. Some guitar players think it's how fast you play but that's not it at all.
Bobby Bland called me and wanted me to go out on the road with him. But I've been behind other folks so long I feel like it's time to get out there for myself. I think I'm going to keep working on my own thing.