{{short description|American singer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Johnny Woods | image = | caption = Woods in spring 1972, in Olive Branch, Mississippi (photo: by Tom Pomposello via Fred Seibert) | background = solo_singer | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date|1917|11|1|mf=y}} | birth_place = Looxahoma, Mississippi, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1990|2|1|1917|11|1|mf=y}} | death_place = Olive Branch, Mississippi, United States | instrument = Vocals, harmonica | genre = Delta blues | occupation = Musician, songwriter | years_active = 1959–90 | label = Arhoolie, Oblivion, Rounder Records, Fat Possum | website = }}
'''Johnny Woods''' (November 1, 1917 – February 1, 1990) was an American blues singer and harmonica player in the north Mississippi hill country blues style.<ref name="LarkinBlues">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Blues|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-673-1|page=391}}</ref>
Woods was born in Looxahoma, Mississippi, a small town just west of Mississippi Highway 35.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aditi-image.tv/dvd.php?id=AI82802 |title=Adit-Image |access-date=January 6, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302044203/http://www.aditi-image.tv/dvd.php?id=AI82802 |archive-date=March 2, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His harmonica playing first gained attention in the 1960s, when he was a duet partner with the guitarist and singer Mississippi Fred McDowell.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> They recorded together for the music historian George Mitchell in 1967, for Chris Strachwitz's Arhoolie Records (''King of the Country Blues Vol. 2''), for Swingmaster (''Blues of Johnny Woods'')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOKZKESWys0C&q=%22johnny+woods%22+harmonica+biography|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues-2nd (p)|first=Gérard|last=Herzhaft|date=March 13, 1992|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|isbn=9781610751391|access-date=March 13, 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref> and as a solo for Tom Pomposello and Fred Seibert of Oblivion Records (''"Mississippi Harmonica"'') in 1972.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oblivionrecords.tumblr.com/tagged/o2?og=1|title=The Oblivion Records blog|first=Peter|last=Vidani|website=Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com|access-date=March 13, 2021}}</ref>
Stylistically, Woods's music sprang from the same north Mississippi fife-and-drum blues tradition as McDowell's.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> However, personal problems kept him rooted in the Delta, primarily working as a farmhand and sharecropper.
After McDowell's death in July 1973, Woods faded into obscurity until George Mitchell paired him again with another Mitchell discovery from the Mississippi Delta, R. L. Burnside, himself a McDowell disciple.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> They recorded the Swingmaster album and video ''Going Down South.''
Woods died in Olive Branch, Mississippi, in 1990.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://chulasfronteras.com/ Arhoolie Records Website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120302044203/http://www.aditi-image.tv/dvd.php?id=AI82802 Adit-Image Website] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=sOKZKESWys0C&q=%22johnny+woods%22+harmonica+biography Encyclopedia of the Blues] * [http://oblivionrecords.tumblr.com/tagged/o2 Oblivion Records' Johnny Woods Archive] * [http://www.wirz.de/music/woodsjoh.htm Illustrated Johnny Woods discography] * [http://oblivionrecords.tumblr.com/post/849226196/a-very-brief-history-of-johnny-woods-mississippi Very brief history of "Mississippi Harmonica"]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Woods, Johnny}} Category:1917 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Delta blues musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American blues harmonica players Category:Singers from Mississippi Category:Songwriters from Mississippi Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American male singers Category:American male songwriters Category:20th-century American songwriters