Self taught piano picker Johnny ‘Piano’ Russell started out discovering the piano at his Grandma Russell’s southern Ontario homestead at a very young age. He continued his interest in learning how to play songs by ear, and when he heard recordings of boogie-woogie artists, that was it man, he was hooked! When exposed to Chicago blues through his brothers friends record collection, he knew he had found his niche.
In 1978 he was asked to join the newly formed Backtrack Blues Band in Ottawa and they set out learning from the greats in the Chicago blues scene. The band played locally and set out on road trips mostly in Quebec and the maritimes, playing behind the Prime Minister of the Blues, Dutch Mason. Back in Ottawa, Johnny found himself backing Junior Wells and Buddy Guy for 3 shows and they recognized his likeness to some of the great Chicago piano players especially Otis Spann. Johnny became a regular at the Ottawa Blues Festival in it’s early years, backing American entertainers that came, such as Johnny Sansone, Sherman Robertson, Texas Horns, AJ Forest. The Blues in the Schools program was sponsored by the fest and Johnny enjoyed being a part of that. He was asked to come down to play the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in early 2000 with Johnny Sansone and this piqued his love of the music and (food) of the Crescent City. Before moving to Winnipeg, Johnny fronted the long-running jam at Irene’s in Ottawa, mentoring many younger musicians such as Steve Marriner and JW Jones whom have both gone on to impressive careers. As a sideman, Johnny performed with the late Rocket Rached and the Fat City Eight, and was later tapped to travel south with the late Harpdog Brown on one of his last tours.
A chance meeting with JP at a one-off mini blues festival presented by Winnipeg stalwart, Billy Joe Green, led to the two Johnnys joining forces time and again over the last 10 years. JP and Johnny are so much on the same page musically that it feels as though they came up in the same bands together.