Macon Magazine

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 MACON MAGAZINE I 29 www.dayandennis.com (478) 474-7480 DAY & ENNIS, LLC FEE-ONLY FINANCIAL PLANNING The future looks brighter when you plan for it. Jenkins even had problems with the album's title, which was Capricorn's attempt to add an aura of exotica to Jenkins, the man and musician. "Evidently, Phil (Walden) thought it was a funky, exotic, evocative-sounding word," author Dyer said. "And then Johnny learned that it denoted Haiti's death squads and understandably freaked out about it." e label's attempts at image cultivation reached a peak a few months later when Jenkins – clad in quasi Native American garb, at the urging of management – performed music from "Ton-Ton Macoute!" a few hours aer his former protégé Jimi Hendrix at the Byron Pop Festival. "We were trying to build an image for Johnny," Hornsby said. "I don't think he was crazy about the idea." Following his relatively short tenure at Capricorn, Jenkins retreated back to family life and relative obscurity before reemerging in the 1990s. "When he started playing again, everyone in Macon's music scene was excited," Dyer, then a reporter for e Telegraph, said. "He had a bit of a Salinger mystique – the purist and recluse, the pyrotechnic talent who would have made it big if factors had not conspired against him." Joining forces again with Alan Walden – this time more on the guitarist's terms – Jenkins released the well-received "Blessed Blues in 1996, followed by 2001's "Handle with Care" and "All in Good Time" in 2005. On these final albums and in celebratory live performances throughout Macon in the late 90s and early 2000s, Jenkins' clean, sinuous guitar lines and worldly vocals finally receive their well- deserved spotlight. In 2006, Johnny Jenkins passed away at the age of 67, leaving a legacy of blues-inflected music that has subtly but profoundly affected American music. "He was an authentic bluesman with a powerful singing voice and a unique guitar style," former director of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Lisa Love said. "Jenkins had a supporting role in the careers of some of America's biggest music icons ever. For an unassuming man from Macon who shunned the spotlight, that's a pretty darn great story in itself." M

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