Jumpin' Johnny Sansone

Like his friend Sonny Landreth, harmonica player/accordionist Jumpin' Johnny Sansone takes his songwriting cues from the things he sees in his New Orleans home. Many of the songs on Crescent City Moon, his debut for Rounder's Bullseye Blues label, are inspired by the sights, sounds, and smells of the Crescent City. Sansone left his native West Orange, NJ, at 17 in 1975 to attend college in Colorado on a swimming scholarship. He began playing harmonica at age 13, also accompanying himself on guitar. "I was trying to be Jimmy Reed in our basement," he recalled in a 1997 interv...