Méridien/Club Lionel Hampton In Paris

About Ernie Johnson

Ernie Johnson was born in Winnsboro, Louisiana, most likely in the early to mid-forties. Malaco Records tells the story of how renowned R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter, who was one of Johnson's relatives, came to Ernie with a suitcase full of money that he had made while playing the piano.

"That right there was my clue to start pursuing a singing career and give up my job as a cotton hauler", Johnson told his Malaco/Waldoxy source.

Johnson moved to Texas in 1957, determined to make it as a singer. He got a job with the Dallas parks department, but quit to form a band named the Soul Blenders soon after his first performance at a club in Mexia, Texas, where he reportedly upstaged the headliners, Ms. Lavelle White and Guitar James Walley.

And yet, outside of a few singles for small Southern labels over the years--Ernie Johnson mostly played dollar-at-the-door juke joints in little towns throughout the Deep South. Still, out of this humble career, Ernie Johnson fashioned some of the finest Southern Soul songs of the era, among them: "You're Gonna Miss Me," "Drowning In Misery," "Love's On The Other Line," "Share You With Someone Else," "It's Getting Hard," "You Made This House A Happy Home" and more.