ZEKE JOHNSON

My friend Zeke...Blues/Folk singer extraordinaire, scholar from Memphis...recorded at Sun recording Studios in the same room Elvis Presley and so many others recorded their hit songs... passed away last year.

Zeke, 2019, Renato Rampolla

I met him on a street just off Beale street in Memphis late one afternoon. He was sitting on a public bench with his guitar in a soft-shell case under his feet.

Zeke was open and friendly as though he was welcoming family to his home as I said hello.  He asked if I wanted to hear one of his songs. Before I could answer, he took out his guitar and started playing for me.  The portrait above was made while he was singing that song for me.

Music was a way for him to be close but still guarded. As a musician, I can relate to that.

Zeke recording at Sun Records 2018- photograph credit Sabine Hilbert

There was a sadness about him that I couldn’t explain. Something in the way he talked or carried himself, I don’t know. I learned more about him afterwards through correspondence. Turns out he was in the Marines, was a high school history teacher and was married for a very long time to the same woman until she passed a couple years prior.

I’m sad that my encounter with Zeke was just the one time, even though we had several phone conversations after that. He did like to talk on the phone. He was in Tennessee and I am in Florida.

What impressed me most about Zeke, was that he lived true to himself, free of any pretense. He was and is still an inspiration to all who had the fortune to know him, even if it was a brief time.