Growing up in the town of Darling, Mississippi, in the 1950s, a young James Johnson was often curious about the noises the chickens on his family’s farm made, earning him the nickname “Chicken Boy.” Later in life he drove a red taxi cab in Clarksdale and earned the nickname “Fast Red” for his quick driving skills.
One day, a woman from Darling who had known Johnson since he was a child visited Clarksdale and put in a request with the cab company to have “Chicken” come and pick her up. When the dispatcher didn’t know who the woman was referring to, she clarified that “Chicken” was “that boy that drives the red car.” Apparently, Johnson said, another local woman had told her about him and said, “He’s a super fast chicken because he’ll come right on out and get you.”
Next thing Johnson knew, his dispatcher was calling him and asking for “Super Fast Chicken” to come out to this cab stop. He didn’t respond. She called for him again, shortening the name to “Super Chicken.” When he didn’t answer to that name either, she called for Car 4. He finally answered, prompting her to ask, “Don’t you know your name when you hear it?”
“My name isn’t Super Chicken,” Johnson told her.
“It is now,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Why?” he pressed.
“One lady said you’re Chicken. Another lady said you’re Super Fast Chicken, so we’re just going to call you Super Chicken.”
Johnson’s new nickname stuck and he ended up carrying it with him both as a CB handle while working as a truck driver and later as a stage name for his career as a blues musician. A fateful encounter with a fan after a concert later led to his moniker changing one final time.
“I was sitting there eating chicken after a show when a fan walked up and saw me and joked, ‘That ain’t right, a chicken eating chicken.’” Johnson said. “I felt bamboozled by that and ended up changing the spelling of my name, and I’ve been Super Chikan ever since.”
‘Going to Hollywood’
Johnson was born into a strong legacy of the Delta Blues as the grandson of Ellis Johnson and the nephew of famed blues musician Big Jack Johnson. James Johnson built a one-stringed instrument called a diddley bow for himself as a child and later played bass in Clarksdale music clubs with his uncle’s band, the Jelly Roll Kings.
He began coming up with his own songs on the road while working as a truck driver and later formed his own band called the Funk Thumpers. Johnson’s first album, “Blues Come Home to Roost,” released in 1997 and received the Best Blues Album and Best Debut Album awards from Living Blues Magazine Awards in 1998.
Following the success of his first album, Johnson was spending his time performing at local blues clubs in Clarksdale, Cleveland and Sumner when he received a call inviting him to perform at the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale.
“I figured that they called me because my name had been ringing around, but going to something like that with such a big crowd felt like going to Hollywood at the time,” Johnson said. “I was still shy about so many people watching me perform, and I remember closing my eyes thinking it’d keep them from seeing me. After it was over, I found I was hungry for that kind of excitement and kept going after it.”
‘Ground Zero for the Blues’
Clarksdale native and Living Blues Magazine editor Jim O’Neal worked with Dr. Patricia Johnson and merchants in the city’s downtown area to organize the inaugural Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival in 1988. The festival received its name from its location at the Riverside Recreation Center along the bank of the Sunflower River.
Johnson’s uncle Big Jack Johnson and the Jelly Roll Kings played at the festival alongside Boogaloo Ames, Bud Spires, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Jack Owens and other blues musicians.
Over the years, the festival moved around Clarksdale from Martin Luther King Park to Soldiers Field before finally settling at the Delta Blues Museum in 1991. The museum, located on the site of a former freight depot loading dock, shares a building with the Carnegie Public Library, which began housing the festival’s acoustic stage after the event moved to the museum. The museum’s stage for the Sunflower Festival faces the railroad tracks and a raised concrete platform that is part of the Ground Zero Blues Club, which Mississippi-native actor Morgan Freeman owns.
Maie Smith, tour director for the Delta Blues Museum and an organizer for the Sunflower Festival since 1997, said that a facility dedicated to the history of the Delta Blues was the perfect place for the festival to make its home.
“Clarksdale is kind of a ground zero of the blues because so many musicians migrated here looking for work as well as a place to play their music,” Smith said. “We’re right in the middle of the Delta with abundant agriculture, so aspiring musicians could work in fields by day and sing as they worked then play by night. Clarksdale is the place where W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues himself, decided to come to bring his music into the world.”
‘Come to Clarksdale’
The 2026 Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival will take place from Friday, Aug. 7, to Sunday, Aug. 9. The Delta Blues Museum will also host the Grits, Greens & BBQ VIP Party ahead of the main event on Thursday, Aug. 6, featuring performances from Stan Street & The Hopeless Case Band, Heath Sitton and Derk Harp.
On Friday the festival will officially kick off at 7 p.m. with performances at the main stage in the Delta Blues Museum. Johnson and his band, The Fighting Cocks, are the headliners for the event and will perform from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. The show will also include performances from the Delta Blues Museum Band, Heavy Sugar & The SweetTones, Lucious Spiller and the Mississippi NUNU & Band.
The acoustic-focused Saturday afternoon show begins at 11 a.m. at the Acoustic Stage VIP Tent near the main stage and will feature performances from Kenny Brown, Libby Rae Watson, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Ms. Australia “Honey Bee” Jones, Terry “Harmonica” Bean, Little Willie Farmer and Bill Abel. Mississippi Marshall will also perform at the nearby Ground Zero Blues Club at 5 p.m.
At 7 p.m. on Saturday night the show will move to the main stage, where Edna Nicola & Delta Avenue will perform ahead of a festival awards show at 7:45 p.m. After the awards show, the evening will have additional performances from Terry Big T Williams & The Family Band, Mark Mule Man Massey, Anthony “Big A” Sherrod, Tre Williams and Nick Markeith & The Cuz Band.
Sunday’s gospel-focused “Where Blues Meets Faith” show begins at 3:30 p.m. and will feature performances from Ghope Grove, Smith Chapel, BJ Generation, Cody Murphy, Sons of Wonders, Newson Sisters, Spiritual Soldiers and Josh Myles.
“Our festival is a great spot for up-and-coming artists to be seen and make a start,” Maie Smith said. “We strive to highlight local Mississippi artists, and that’s a big part of why we made sure the show was free from the start and have done our utmost to keep it free. It being here at the museum also gives us the chance to pass on the knowledge of the Blues history we have here in Clarksdale to everyone who comes out to see the show.”
Johnson has played at the Sunflower Festival every year since his first visit in 1997 and has also become a regular at the Ground Zero Blues Club. Johnson said that while the Delta Blues Museum has always invited him to be the headliner for the festival, he often turns down the offer so that other artists can have the honor.
“(The Sunflower Festival) has been one of the greatest shows I’ve ever gotten to do,” Johnson said. “The Delta Blues Museum has done so much to get people excited about music in Clarksdale. I’ve also gotten the chance to teach Blues classes there and be a mentor for young people.”
“Between this festival and the Juke Joint Festival that Clarksdale holds in April, the streets and every club in Clarksdale are filled with the Blues,” he added. “If you want to hear the Blues, you need to come to Clarksdale.”
The 2026 Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival will take place from Friday, Aug. 7, to Sunday, Aug. 9, at the Delta Blues Museum (1 Blues Alley, Clarksdale). Admission is free. For more information, visit sunflowerfest.org.
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