A country band with a taste for blues, boogie, and rock & roll, the Kentucky Headhunters were an unexpected success story in the late '80s and early '90s, taking their revved-up and rootsy sound to C&W radio and the upper reaches of the sales charts. In 1993, the Headhunters crossed paths with one of their heroes, Johnnie Johnson, the St. Louis piano player who was part of Chuck Berry's band in the '50s and played on his classic Chess Records sessions, helping to build the framework for Berry's wildly influential sound. Johnson and the Headhunters struck up a friendship, and they cut an album with the band backing up Johnson on a set of blues and rock & roll tunes, 1993's
That'll Work. Johnson and the Headhunters kept in touch, and in early 2003, Johnson joined the group in the studio to add piano riffs to a few songs the Headhunters were working on for an R&B-influenced project. Inspiration was in the air, and the musicians ended up jamming all night, writing a batch of new songs on the spot. The Kentucky Headhunters decided the songs with Johnson deserved an album of their own, but after his death in 2005, the project went on the back burner. In 2014, at the request of Johnson's widow, the Headhunters revisited the material and gave the 2003 sessions a proper mix for the first time. The band teamed with the venerable blues label Alligator Records to release the results, and in June 2015, their lost collaboration with Johnnie Johnson saw the light of day under the title
Meet Me in Bluesland.
