'Those Who Came Before' film, concert to honor Black West Virginians known for their music

Jan. 8—Johnnie Johnson, the boogie-woogie piano player and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, once told an understated story about his collaborations with the new guy in his band.

"Well, Chuck would come in with the lyrics, " he recounted to The Dominion Post in 2002.

"And I'd come up with something on the piano. It seemed to work out OK."

Indeed.

"Chuck, " was Chuck Berry.

And one set of lyrics ended up as part of a tune that became the tune: "Johnny B. Goode."

Berry wrote the words in tribute to Johnson, a quiet guy who grew up on Pennsylvania Avenue in Fairmont and mainly let the piano do the talking for him.

Johnson ended up in St. Louis after his service in World War II. He was fronting a jazz and blues trio when he made Berry's acquaintance there in 1952.

Three years later, they were in the recording studio at Chess Records in Chicago, as Berry's band.

Oh, and that signature intro to "Johnny B. Goode ?"

Johnson came up with that. On piano. Berry translated it to the guitar.

So, if you're gigging on weekends, or just getting loud in the garage or basement with your buddies, and you lean into said song with your Fender Squire Stratocaster — then you, in turn, are honoring a West Virginia musician who came before you.

Which can't help but make Doris Fields smile.

Telling it Fields is a Beckley area R &B singer and songwriter also known by her stage name of "Lady D., " who once sang at a White House concert with then-President Barack Obama smiling and applauding in the audience.

Last year, she wrote and produced a video honoring the Black musicians from here who made their names in concert halls across the world and in the hills and hollows of their home state.

"Those Who Came Before, " is the name of the work, made in part with the aid of a grant from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.

Interviews, from the actual musicians, in some cases, abound in the work, along with anecdotes and other remembrances from family and bandmates.

Fields says it's the first entry in a planned, five-part series.

"A lot of us don't know our musical history, " she said.

"A lot of us don't know the contributions African-Americans from West Virginia have made, musically."

There are the accounts of Johnson and Bill Withers: the "Ain't No Sunshine " Everyman from Slab Fork, Raleigh County, who spun AM radio gold in the 1970s.

People might generally know them, Fields said.

Withers, especially.

They might not know, however, that Paul Simon's favorite gospel group, The Swan Silvertones, was founded by Claude Jeter, a West Virginia coal miner who sang hymns during his shifts underground.

When he died in 2009 at the age of 94, The New York Times wrote its own obituary, given the group's international acclaim.

And Fields also interviews a member of the new guard: Morgantown singer, bandleader and songwriter Aristotle Jones, who plays around the region as "The Appalachian Soul Man."

Getting by — and better Jones, who at 43 is among the youngest artists profiled, talks about his experiences as a kid growing up Black in rural West Virginia.

For him, the music is the soundtrack to all those experiences and all that history swirling around.

And what happened next — after that budding artist scrawled a lyric on a legal pad, or picked out a figure on guitar.

It's about Jim Crow, jazz and jam bands, he said — all at once.

It's also about survival, he said.

Metaphorically and literally.

"Even if you just wrote a sad, autobiographical song, " Jones said, "that still means you lived to tell about it."

You'll hear lots of songs on the stage of The Encore music venue next Saturday evening in Morgantown, where "Those Who Came Before " will be also be screened at 6 p.m.

Al and Bobby, bringing it home That's the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The evening also includes a concert featuring two performers, who don't necessarily need an introduction.

There's Al Anderson, the Osage community activist and doo-wop veteran who has performed in venues from Hollywood, Fla., to Hollywood, Calif.

And Bobby Nicholas, another University City icon whose smooth, uptown blues and handling of the Great American Songbook has led to him headlining clubs around the world while also opening for Ray Charles and others.

Jones and his band, complete with a horn section, will perform, in addition to backing up Anderson and Nicholas.

The concert follows at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $20 and may be purchased online at www.aristotlejones.com.

"We're the house band, " Jones said, smiling.

Sometimes, he said, there's not a lot to smile about in these times and climes.

Except, he ventured, when there is.

There's Dr. King and his timeless messages of love, peace, nonviolence — and a dream that became The Dream.

There's Fields, with her vision to tell a story of people and place.

There's Anderson and Nichols, who knocked on doors — and then walked in, with personal grace and unparalleled musical chops.

And there's us: Those of us from, and of, that state with the funky, squiggly borders — born of the Civil War.

"We're West Virginians, " the songwriter said.

"And we're all in this together. We really are."

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