Little Johnny Kantreed
Winner of the MCBS Bluesey Award for Best Other Blues Instrumentalist of the Year. Also nominated for Acoustic Blues Act of the Year, and "Acoustic Alley Blues" for Blues CD of the Year.
Downhome acoustic folk blues. LJK was born and raised in the Nashville, TN area. In the late '70's, solo artists were a dime a dozen in Nashville. So LJK packed up his powder blue Vega and moved to the Daytona Beach area of Florida, playing happy hours and opening for beach bands. Deciding that a steady paycheck would be a good way of life, he entered the radio scene and DJ'd morning drive times in Greenville, KY and Winchester, VA. Realizing that he liked Tennessee better than the nomadic life of radio, he landed back in Nashville.
Back in his hometown, he hooked up with a couple of bands, playing drums for The Color Flag and Horse Of A Different Color. But it was the blues that was in him. Since that time, playing at The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival (formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival) in Helena, AR, The Ground Zero Blues Club and the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, MS, the Booze 'n' Blues Festival in Indianola, MS, along with King's Palace on Beale Street in Memphis, The Great Atlanta Blues & Music Festival, The Slippery Noodle Inn in Indianapolis and the Blues Stage at The Beanblossom Blues Festival in Beanblossom, IN, and sharing the stage with Americana artists Annie Mosher and Cheley Tackett, blues artists Blue Mother Tupelo, Patio Daddio of Delicious Blues Stew, Jimbo Mathus, Wichita's Moreland & Arbuckle, Indianapolis based The D-Moans, The Blues Attic Ramblers and "The Southpaw from Arkansas", guitarist Michael Holloway, Little Johnny is quickly making a name for himself in the Southeast blues scene.