Welcome to the website of musician & singer-songwriter, JOHNNY CHIMES. A man who has been referred to in the media as the “Emperor of Boogie-Woogie”, “Duke of the Honky-Tonk Piano” and a “musician’s musician”.

He began his career @age 16, working small clubs and taverns in his then home state of Illinois. By age 23, he was touring across the Midwest regularly performing in blues-rock bands. Upon leaving the state, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and spent the next four years learning the craft of songwriting. His first songs were published with ATV/Sony & Warner Music. When he wasn’t criss-crossing the South playing piano in country-rock bands, he would perform at “writer’s nite” shows in the city. Before leaving Nashville, he got married and had a son, who he named after jazz legend Mose Allison. A friend in the radio business “up North” had urged him to come to Madison, Wisconsin—a family-friendly and musically-rich area.

Chimes initially began gigging in southern Wisconsin as a solo act—playing bars and supper clubs, beginning to gain some notoriety among the area’s blues and country musicians and eventually working with many of them. Chimes played the Midwest college coffeehouse & concert circuit for several years, largely handling his own bookings.
Meanwhile, his son was also showing his own considerable musical talent. It was only natural that father & son would begin performing together with some of their musician friends. And thus was born the “Natch’l Blues Band, who, for seven years were one of the most popular acts in the capital city of Madison. The band continues to this day with a different line-up of friends, but always with Johnny Chimes as bandleader.

For the past thirty-plus years, Chimes has been performing his own New Orleans-inspired piano & finger-picking guitar regularly at Louisianne’s restaurant in Middleton, Wisconsin. He has also been a “natural” opening concert act over the years for such Louisiana ‘luminaries’ as the Radiators, Iguanas, Gino Delafose and Craig Klein’s Bonerama. Chimes was made a “lifetime invitee” to the City of Madison’s premiere summer music festival, Fete du Marquette.

To date, Johnny Chimes has recorded ten albums of music—each one reflecting the many facets of his songwriting and musicianship. He continues to perform at concert venues across the Metro area. He is truly a Madison Music Legend”…

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Johnny Chimes

June 27 @ 5:30 pm

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Louisianne’s Middleton

Johnny Chimes

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