Clarksdale Musician Creates Unusual Guitars By Robert McFarland, Jr.
Delta Business Journal
  Blues guitar player, James "Super Chikan" Johnson, has made a name for himself around the North Delta playing the blues with his band.  Anyone that has ever seen "Chikan" play his guitar will tell you that he is one bad guitar player - and that means good. However, all of Chikan's fans would be surprised to learn that not only is he a dedicated guitar player, he is also a dedicated inventor and folk artist.  Recently, Chikan invented a guitar that is made out of a five gallon military gas can.  To add to his "can" guitars, Chikan painted them in interesting ways using his folk art touch.  The combined effort is amazing in sound and in look.
  "When I was a kid, I experimented with making "bucket guitars" and other things back then," says Chikan. "I finally started making them out of metal gas cans when I got older, thinking that with the hole of the gas can on the end, that all a player would have to do is stick a microphone over the hole and sing at the same time. The microphone would pick up both."
Chikan says that he is in the process of getting a patent for the design and that sales have been good so far.
  "I have had a lot of interest," says Chikan who hopes to also sell his guitars over the Internet.
  Music and art have been in Chikan's family for some time. Growing up around the Clarksdale area, Chikan was introduced to music at an early age.
  "My grandaddy was a fiddler, my uncle Big Jack played guitar and they would all sit around and play music with their friends," says Chikan. "When I was a little boy, I'd sit around and listen to them play. I was never allowed to mess with their guitars, but I was fascinated by all of it. I made my first guitar with a board and a piece of bailing wire - a didley bow is what they called it then."
  Chikan says that he learned to play the guitar easily and that he listened to many kinds of music growing up.
  "I always liked several kinds of music and that's why my music today sounds so different," says Chikan.
  To add a personal touch to his creations, Super Chikan has decorated them with scenes from his Quitman County childhood, as well as a depiction of the Crossroads deal between famous blues player Robert Johnson and the Devil.
  The guitars, one of which he made for his uncle "Big Jack Johnson," will be displayed later at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. Back