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Syl Johnson
 
Mississippi-born blues guitarist who moved to Chicago (next door to blues great Magic Sam, in fact) at the age of 8, has released a new album, Bridge to a Legacy on Antone's (though Johnson is apparently not happy that some commercialized remixes replaced the originals without his consent).

Johnson signed with King Records in 1960, recorded with blues guitarist Freddie King, but after "Come on Sock It to Me" (1967) and his '70s singles with the Memphis-based Hi label (with folks like Al Green, O.V. Wright, Otis Clay, and Willie Mitchell), he became an R&B success. He also toured with Junior Wells during the late '50s and early '60s, and recorded for Vee-Jay Records' Federal label, and recorded a bunch of funky sides for Twilight Records. Johnson retired from the music business in the mid-'80s to open Solomon's, a string of fast-food fish restaurants. His prosperity ended, though, when his wife divorced him, and his restaurant chain defaulted. Luckily at that time, his "Different Strokes" caught on with the rap crowd, and his work was sampled by the Ghetto Boys, Wu-Tang Clan, MC Hammer, TLC, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube, Ice-T, Michel'le, NWA, Sister Souljah, Public Enemy, EPMD, Eric Sermon, and Tone-Loc. Spurred by this interest (and fiscally stable again), he returned to the studio in 1993 to record Back in the Game.

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