Grace Johnston could sing and swing a tune with a drive and delivery that almost transcended description.
And she really WAS from Dixie! She was born in Crowley (Acadia Parish). Louisiana. on December 17, 1903 (the very day of the Wright Brothers historic flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina). She was raised in New Orleans.
Hearing her recording “Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On” was my first exposure to the dynamic Grace Johnston, courtesy of the late Kenny Klemann, a renowned New York-based collector who specialized in “Personalities.” Two other titles that Kenny owned were “You’re Driving Me Crazy” and “Them There Eyes.” I was knocked out by Johnston’s talent and eagerly began to collect her entire recorded legacy which spanned the years 1928 to 1932.
Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman accompanied her on recording dates, which explains why she was included under her own name in Brian Rust’s Jazz Records discography. It seemed too good to be true when Warner Home Video issued a two-DVD set of “Vitaphone Varieties” in 2012 which contained the only film appearance of Grace Johnston: a seven-minute 1929 Vitaphone short entitled Grace Johnston and the Indiana Five. Quoting Ron Hutchinson’s notes:
The discovery of the long missing Vitaphone sound
