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Johnny
Kee, Storyteller
I got my start
playing guitar and singing during the so-called folk music revival of the
late '50s into the '60s. In early '62, I joined with a friend from our
church youth group to form the Bayou Brothers folk group, later expanded
to a trio. In
our year and a half performing together, I was exposed to a wide variety of folk
songs, from old traditional songs, including hymns, spirituals, and gospel
songs, along with new "folk" songs from contemporary writers.
At that time, and ever since, I have been especially drawn to songs
that tell a story. For my second CD, I chose to gather a dozen of my
favorite "story" folk songs. I first heard many of these
songs back in the '60s, but they were disjoint verses compacted to fit the
pop music standard 3 minutes. I have located more complete historical
versions, rewrote some verses and added new verses, and organized the
verses for many of them to fit my vision of a story.
By the way, all of these songs include at least one Native Flute solo
and/or duet.
Click here to learn more about this CD. |
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Echoes From the Trail
Over 2 1/2 years in the works, Johnny Kee's first commercial CD was
formally released on October 1, 2018. Historically, the first book published in the
Cherokee syllabary (written language) was the Cherokee Hymn Book, published in
1829. This book was available for nearly a decade when the U.S. Army forced the Cherokee people
out of their homes in 1838-1839 in accordance with an illegal treaty between the
U.S. Government and a group of former tribal leaders with no authority to
speak for the Cherokee tribal council or people. By the time of the
"removal", many Cherokee had converted to Christianity. I have heard
that songs from the Hymn Book, especially Hymn 87 to the tune of Amazing
Grace,
were heard many times along the trail where an estimated 4000 Cherokee, or
about 1/4 of the Cherokee Nation's citizens, died of disease,
exposure, or starvation, giving this historic tragedy the name we know it
by, the Trail of Tears.
This CD is Johnny Kee's
interpretations of a dozen songs from the Cherokee Hymn Book presented in remembrance
to the suffering on the Trail of Tears.
Click here to learn more about this CD. |
Ordering Johnny Kee
CDs Directly
Johnny Kee CDs sell for $15 per copy, with
a 10% discount for quantities of 3 or more (including mixed titles). Shipping is $5.00 for one or
two, and $8.00 for any number three or greater. If I ship to a site within
Florida, please also add 7% state/local sales tax. Although this is likely to
change following a recent Supreme Court ruling, I am not currently collecting
sales taxes for deliveries outside Florida. If you are uncertain about the
amount, you can contact me at Johnny@JohnnyKee.com
for a full quote.
Place your order by submitting the following form...
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