Johnny Dyer was born on the Stovall Plantation in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on December 7, 1938. Many of our readers recognize that location as being the childhood home of Muddy Waters. Dyer, like blues musicians everywhere, was heavily influenced by Muddy’s music.

Dyer started playing the harmonica at the age of seven when he heard Little Walter playing on a Nashville, Tennessee, radio station. By the time he was a teenager, Johnny Dyer was playing acoustic harmonica and had formed his own band.

Starting in the early 50’s, Dyer began to play the amplified harp alongside Smokey Wilson. In 1958, Johnny Dyer moved to Los Angeles where he hooked up with George “Harmonica” Smith. The two performed as a duo and often billed themselves as a father and son team. By this time Dyer had been developing his skills as a vocalist and he seemed to be quite adept in that arena as well. He seemed to have a natural gift at communicating in the blues lexicon which audiences could relate to immediately.

He then fronted his own band called, Johnny Dyer and the Blue Notes. This ensemble also served as a back-up unit in support of established blues stars such as Jimmy Rogers, J.B. Hutto and Jimmy Reed.

In the 1960’s, Dyer started performing with less regularity and then stepped away from the business for almost two decades. He returned during the blues revival of the 1980’s. It was during this decade he began singing with other L.A. based harp players such as Rod Piazza, Shaky Jake Harris and Harvey Blackstone aka Harmonica Fats.

He also began an association with a band that was billed as Johnny Dyer and the L.A. Jukes. Their 1983 release Jukin’ on the Murray Brothers label was very well received despite limited distribution.

Dyer’s first national breakout came via his association with guitarist Rick Holmstrom and their two albums on the New Orleans based Black Top Records. 1994’s Listen Up and 1995’s Shake It. Both feature Dyer’s wonderful vocals and harp playing along with the astonishingly mature guitar work of Holmstrom. These two albums provided Dyer with his first big critical and commercial success.

In 2004, Johnny Dyer, along with the recently departed Finis Tasby, sang on the inaugural release of the Southern California based super group The Mannish Boys. 2004 also saw the release of the album Rolling Fork Revisited, where Dyer sang alongside harmonica player Mark Hummel.

A few years later, Dyer hooked up with the international coalition of musicians led by Southern Californian Mark Mumea called The Elgins. Their 2012 album on Devil’s Tale Music entitled Back to Chicago was a reunion of sorts of the L.A. Jukes as drummer  Bob “Pacemaker” Newham and harmonica player/vocalist Mark Bukich were on board for this project. Dyer sings on four of the album’s sixteen tracks. It would be Dyer’s last recording session.

By this time, respiratory illness slowed him down considerably. His live performance schedule virtually ground to a halt as well over the past year or so. Johnny Dyer finally succumbed to respiratory complications and passed away on November 13^th.

Johnny Dyer will always be remembered as an affable and congenial gentlemen. His friends and fans will always miss not only his great music, but his wonderful personality.

- David Mac