Album Notes

W. C. Handy called Johnny Maddox "the white boy with the colored fingers" after hearing him play in 1952. Here, Johnny pays tribute to the man who gave America the Blues, playing Handy's songs at the tempo they were originally performed - fast! Johnny has always been partial to the blues, because the form allows for his own arrangement on every song. This CD is a program of popular blues, rags, and Dixieland jazz songs that complement the Handy material, all infused with Johnny's distinctive, rollicking ragtime style.

This CD is part of a three CD set of Johnny's solo sessions: Back Home in Tennessee, Cowboys and Indians and Where the Southern Crosses the Yellow Dog. Each CD includes a 16-page booklet featuring full color reproductions of original artwork covers of the featured songs along with histories, backgrounds and stories on each song.

Johnny Maddox was already America's number one jukebox artist when in 1954 he recorded the first all-piano record in history, "The Crazy Otto Medley". It spent 14 weeks at the top of the charts, and became the first ragtime record to sell over 1,000,000 copies, eventually selling over 2,000,000. An accomplished ragtime piano player and musicologist, Johnny even has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard, right next to Will Rogers.

Johnny Maddox was born on August 4, 1927 in Gallatin, Tennessee. Johnny's love of ragtime and early American music has led him to amass a collection of over 30,000 78rpm records, wax cylinders and piano rolls. His sheet music collection is conservatively estimated at 200,000 pieces, 3,000 of which he knows by heart.

Key Selling Points:

· Johnny Maddox has recorded 50 albums and 87 singles - 9 gold singles - with record sales of over 11,000,000.

· Johnny knew and played with most of the leading Ragtime artists as well as many of the major artists of the 50's including: Patsy Cline, Eddie Arnold, W. C. Handy, and Joe Jordan.

· First major release in 30 years