On Christmas morning in Florida, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson died at 83 years old.

Johnson was a successful blues musician. He was nominated for three Grammys and won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1985. He also won a W.C. Handy Award, now called a Blues Music Award. He played for Muddy Waters for eight years, was in the movie “The Blues Brothers” and traveled the world with his music.

Johnson regularly played at the Rynborn, a blues club in Antrim that has since closed. He also performed at The Park Theatre in Jaffrey and Harlow’s Pub in Peterborough. He lived in Antrim for 37 years, and after moving to Florida, continued to travel to the Northeast to play shows and spend summer months.

Local musician and owner of Mickey’s Repair Service, Mickey Maguire, met Johnson on his 23rd birthday when Johnson was recording his “Live at the Rynborn” album. 

Maguire didn’t want to go to the blues club that night.

“I didn’t understand blues,” he said, but at the end of the night he “left completely hooked. It changed my entire life.”

For the last decade, Maguire and Johnson were very close friends. Maguire visited Johnson in Florida. He drove him up and down the coast. They played music together. Maguire was Johnson’s best man in his wedding.

“I’m extremely grateful for the time I spent with him,” Maguire said, “He was an incredible musician, and an even better human.” 

Johnson told Maguire about his upbringing in Mississippi. At 14 years old, Johnson asked his mother to buy him a guitar. He told her, “If you get me a guitar I’m going to play with Muddy Waters one day.” She didn’t believe him, but she got him a guitar and he did it. 

Johnson moved to Memphis, then Chicago. He played with Magic Sam and Jimmy Johnson, prominent Chicago blues musicians. 

“He would get fired almost every night,” Maguire said, laughing. Johnson, who was in his early 20s, would get drunk and Magic Sam would kick him out of the band. But Maguire said he would call him back and rehire him for the next gig. 

Johnson was working operating a crane at a steel mill when Muddy Waters invited him to play with him at a show, then invited him on the road. Johnson took a leave of absence from the mill. After two weeks he told them he wouldn’t be coming back. 

“People are either playing blues or playing blues songs,” Maguire said. “If you can’t feel it, it’s not blues.”

Maguire remembered the day of Johnson’s rehearsal barbecue before his wedding in Florida. Maguire didn’t realize they were playing for the event, and said they were sitting in the sun.

“I was excited to be out there,” Maguire said. “We started playing a song. A minute into the song, Luther asked, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ He said, ‘You’re not playing.’” They started playing again and the same thing happened. Maguire was getting frustrated and upset. He took a walk around the house. He noticed people showing up to the dinner. Johnson wanted him to come back to play, but Maguire was too upset. Johnson brought him back and told Maguire, “Sit down boy. Now you can play the blues.” 

“I sat down and played 45 minutes of the most-intense blues I’ve ever  played in my life,” Maguire said. He explained that the emotion, the feeling, is at the root of blues music.

Local guitarist Skip Philbrick played in Johnson’s band for four years, from 1986 to 1990.

“I really learned a lot,” he said, “Not only about music, but how to act as a professional blues musician.”

Philbrick drove to shows all across America and Canada with Johnson. He said Johnson did 80 percent of the driving, and the lifestyle was demanding, but “as soon as [Johnson] hit the stage, you wouldn’t know it.”

Johnson had the unique ability to “make everyone watching feel like he’s playing just for them,” said Philbrick.

Philbrick described Johnson as an unbelievable guitar player with a deep, soulful voice.

“When he played, he commanded the whole room,” Philbrick said. 

Doug Aborn, one of the founders of the Rynborn, met Johnson in the late 1980s when he came up from Massachusetts to play with a band there.

Later, Johnson moved to Antrim, and he was a regular at the Rynborn. Aborn said he played dozens of scheduled shows there and there were even more occasions when he sat in with other bands. 

“No matter the caliber of the band he would sit in with, they always sounded great,” Aborn said, “He was also very  generous with other musicians he hardly  knew. He was  a master performer.”

Maguire is organizing a tribute show in honor of Johnson at The Park Theatre on April 21. He has invited musicians who knew and played with Johnson and hopes it will  be a “powerful experience.” He will miss his friend and is dedicated to keeping his music alive.

“He taught me some incredibly important things about life and he laughed a lot,” Maguire said.

Maguire said when people would gossip about others around Johnson, he would say, “Everybody’s got their own way.” Maguire explained it was a “simple way to accepting people and stopping the conversation.

“You don’t need to worry about them,” said Maguire. “They fit in your life or they don’t.”

Maguire is in a band called Frankie Boy and the Blues Express with another close friend of Johnson’s, Frankie Maneiro. 

In the fall, before Johnson died, Maneiro and Maguire went to Florida to visit him. “We all went to Florida and to the hospital the night before Halloween,” Maguire said. They live-streamed a video of Johnson singing while getting a blood transfusion. Maguire said a lot of people watched the video. 

Maguire said Johnson was in the process of moving back to New Hampshire before his health failed.

“He said he had to ‘come back home,’” said Maguire.

“Anybody who watched Luther play – there’s no way they could forget it,” he said. “He was the most spiritual, intelligent, incredible human I knew. Extremely real.”

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