When He’s Not Fishing...
Country and Rockabilly Songwriter and Singer
“Johnny Jay” Huhta Still Making His Music
by Gerry Luoma Henkel
It was a trio of Finnish names - Huhta, Hoppula, and Wayrynen - that led me to songwriter Johnny Jay’s home on the banks of the Gull River.
The first of the trio – Matt Valentine Huhta, also known as T-Bone Slim Huhta, was an IWW (“Wobbly”) songwriter in the first half of the last century. While “googling” the internet for lyrics of his radical songs, I happened on the name of John Huhta (known also by his professional name Johnny Jay). It turns out that this Huhta is also a song writer – one who has been successful enough in his career to have been inducted into Nashville’s Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2005, and soon into a similar hall of fame in Minnesota. (Rockabilly music: a type of popular music, originating in the southeastern U.S. in the 1950s, combining elements of rock and roll and country music.)
Momentarily distracted from my search for T-Bone’s lyrics by the discovery of this other Huhta, I continued searching John Huhta’s name and found a link to a website called “Wang Dang Dula!”. This site is hosted by Pete Hoppula, the second of my Finnish trio that formed the trail to John “Johnny Jay” Huhta’s door in central Minnesota.
Hoppula is a 29 year old Finnish rock and roll fanatic living in Helsinki. He has documented the history of early rockers (mainly Americans) from the 50s and 60s. Included on his site is a page that lists Johnny Jay’s recordings: Sugar Doll, and Tears (Keep On Falling) from 1957; I’m Gonna Keep It, Send Me Love, That’s What I Like About Love, and Let Me Keep You Company from 1958; Love Of My Life from 1963; Buck $2.80, and Rosy Glow from 1967; One Way Ticket, and Reasonable Facsimile Thereof from 1968; and The Bartender’s Song from 1970.
T-Bone Slim and Pete Hoppula are both from the music world and were natural guides to lead me to John Huhta. With a little more digging around online, I was able to find his phone number and immediately called him. We set up a time for me to meet with him a few days later, and I agreed to drive to his home 150 miles west of Duluth.
That’s where the third Finnish name comes into play - Wayrynen. That’s the name of the highway I travelled on between Duluth and Brainerd to interview John. The “Dale Wayrynen Memorial Highway” is named after Wayrynen, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner who was killed in action in the Vietnam War. He threw himself on a grenade that was tossed into his company, undoubtedly saving many lives.
Three days after discovering Finnish-American John Huhta, a rockabilly and country song writer and musician known around the world, I was on my way traveling down a snowy highway to meet this man who had shared the music stage with legendary singers Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, Marvin Rainwater, Jean Sheppard, Tammy Wynnette, Jim Reeves, and Dave Dudley. I usually prepare extensively for my interviews, but riding in my car I realized that I hadn’t even heard any of his music!
When I pulled into the driveway of their home a few yards up the bank from the Gull River shoreline, I was greeted by John and his playful four year old dog Kodi, a gentle pup that had been brought home from the local animal shelter. John’s wife Pat was off at a quilter’s gathering, but would be back later to join the conversation and serve us some great homemade apple pie.
We walked towards the kitchen dining area past photos and paintings on the wall - some of which were painted by John. At the kitchen table while drinking cups of coffee, and snacking on cheese, cold-cuts, and crackers, John filled me in on his varied and interesting life in the world of commercial rock and country music, as well as some other facets of his life: fishing, painting, selling concrete and asphalt, and living the life of a recovering alcoholic.
All four of John’s grandparents were from Finland - his father’s parents settled in Calumet, Michigan, and his mother’s parents, who couldn’t speak English, settled in Rock Springs, Wyoming, eventually migrating east to Cromwell, Minnesota. John says, “I never did glom onto the Finnish tradition. I’m not sure where my grandparents came from in Finland.”
John’s dad and mom met in Duluth in the early 1930s, and he was born in October of 1934. He grew up in the eastern part of the city (an area called Lester Park). Living there made it easy for him to learn where the trout were in the streams flowing into Lake Superior along the north shore. Fishing became a passion for him early in life, a passion he still pursues on almost a daily basis during fishing season.
John’s father was a machinist who worked for the Soo Line, a railroad that ran through Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. The family moved across the lake to Superior during his high school years. After high school John joined the army, spending 3 years in the service - 1 of those in Korea in 1953 during the winding down of the conflict. Then he was stationed for a year in Okinawa. After his time in the service, he traveled back to Duluth/Superior, where he got married in 1956.
John first became interested in music when he was very young - he taught himself how to play banjo and guitar in grade school, and then sax in junior high. It was after John left the army and returned to Duluth that he began is music career in earnest. During his high school years and while he was in the service he wrote songs and played in bands, but when he came back home music became a much larger factor in his life. He teamed up with his younger twin brothers Max and Mike to play in local honky-tonks and clubs, as well on a local radio station. His brother Max, who was playing guitar with Dave Dudley (of “Six Days On The Road” fame) when he was 13 years old, says that they also opened for national touring acts that played in Duluth.
In 1957 the Huhta brothers were in Nashville and and soon on tour with Hawkshaw Hawkins and Jean Sheppard. They not only played with Hawkins and Sheppard, but they also took turns driving the bus!
Singer and radio show host Ernest Tubb helped the brothers meet some music producers and publishers in Nashville. John signed with an independent producer who put together a recording that was acquired by Mercury Records – one of the biggest record companies of the day. After Mercury, John recorded for other labels, including Stop Records that released his more country sounding songs.
John’s active music career lasted from 1957 until the early 1970’s, including extensive touring, seven solo 45’s, and writing about 100 songs. The most successful of his works may be the one he co-wrote with Dave Dudley, It Takes Time which Dudley recorded in 1973 and which became a Top 40 country-western hit.
Jeff Jarvinen, a historian of popular music in the Duluth area, says, “Johnny is our godfather” of rock music in the Northland. “There were other rockers around here before John, but his tune Sugar Doll, recorded for Mercury Records in 1957 is the first rock and roll recording from an area musician.” The song was recorded in Nashville in Studio B, the location where Elvis Presley recorded when he left Memphis. John recorded other tunes here as well, accompanied by the best of Nashville musicians including the Jordanaires, Elvis’ back-up singers.
By 1986 John had been on the road for 30 years playing honky-tonks and clubs all over America. That’s when he decided to quit the music business. (He says, “I didn’t quit music, I just quit the business of music.”)
A big part of his decision had to do with the toll that drinking was taking on his life. “I don’t remember a lot of those years – whole years I don’t remember – they are vague. Maybe I don’t want to remember. When I decided to quit drinking, I also decided I didn’t want to be with the people that were still drinking. I just moved away from that scene and went into treatment.”
He ended up in Minneapolis where he was able to get into a treatment program – he was 49 years old then, and started a new life. As an army veteran John was able to tap into funding from the government to study at the University of Minnesota for two years, graduating in 1987 with a certificate in counseling. “I never pursued it as a career, though,” John said. “A job came along that paid much better working as a salesman of concrete and asphalt. I worked there until 2002, never looking back.”
After talking with him about his life in music for an hour, I hesitantly admitted to John that I had not ever heard any of his songs. I had to admit that I wasn’t much of a listener to country or rockabilly music in the late 50s and early 60s - the years when he was making his mark in Nashville. He just smiled and suggested that I turn off my recorder and follow him into his studio. For the next half-hour he played for me the recordings that had given him success in those early years, and then also played some of his new music for me.
The songs John was playing for me - the tunes from the late 50s and 60s – were obviously of two different but related genres: rockabilly, and country.
“I didn’t start out to be a rocker; it was country I played at first when I was in Minnesota, but by the time I hit Nashville, it was hard to get a deal. But if you were a rocker and wrote music, you could get one. Otherwise there was a lot of famine. I saw it (country flavored rock) as a stepping stone for me - everybody was doing it.”
I asked him how he would describe himself – was he a songwriter, a singer, a musician? “I’m all of that - song writer, singer, guitar player, performer...I think a guy can’t pigeonhole himself. I had some records that made some noise, we sold a few, and I made some money in my fifteen minutes of fame. There’s a lot of people out there who did a lot more than I have that haven’t been recognized to the extent that I have and I can’t understand that.
“I’m going to be coming out with a new recording,” he said. “I’m still writing songs. I never quit being a musician, I quit playing in clubs when I went into treatment – when you do that your opportunities are limited. Since then I’ve done a lot of benefits, private parties, some demo studio work, and some singing on other peoples studio demos.”
While sitting in his studio listening to his old hits, John made an interesting admission, “It’s a funny thing, but I’m really not a big fan of music. If you asked me who my favorite singer is I’d probably have to tell you Michael Bublé (a jazz/pop singer from Canada). I’ve had some favorites I’ve met and worked with years ago – Ernest Tubb, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash – but I’ve never had an urge to collect records or memorabilia, even my own.”
Because of renewed interest in his songs – the recognition of him by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame has popularized his music to an extent – John is having his old 45s cleaned up digitally and making plans to release a “50 years later” recording.
In 2002 John and his wife Pat (a second marriage for both of them) moved from the Twin Cities to Brainerd - to what John calls their “Shangri-la”, a small and modest home a few yards from the Gull River, a body of water full of fish that John loves to catch. Between the two, they have 11 children and are closing in on 30 grand-children. Pat is retired from working for the Veteran’s administration as a counselor. She likes to say that John isn’t the only one in the family who was often heard on the radio. She wasn’t a singer like her husband – instead she hosted a 1/2 hour program about chemical dependency on a local station.
Pat had arrived home from her morning session with the quilter’s group, and had brought out some home-made apple pie - made from apples from their own trees in the back yard. We devoured the pie as John and I started winding down our conversation, with Pat adding a word or two.
When I had first come into the house I had noticed some very striking paintings on his walls, and I was wondering if he was going to do more painting. “I think what I’m going to do is put another push into the music business,” he said. “It takes a week to get a song decent for a record. I go into a zone when I write – it takes a lot of time and energy so I have to do one thing at a time.”
He explained further that for him, “the business of music has a different motivation than art does. In music you’re looking for something that a lot of people will identify with. When you’re painting, you don’t give a damn, you paint what you feel like painting. And if somebody likes it, fine. If they don’t, there will be another one. It’s a whole different world – painting is a different zone – it’s completely artistic – you have a license to do what you want to do.
“But when you’re writing songs, you have patterns you follow, otherwise people won’t recognize what you’re doing. There are four or five different ways you have to construct a song. You have to paint word pictures, in order for it to be commercial. Of course, if you’re just going to write songs to satisfy that urge to write songs, it doesn’t matter. But when I write a song I feel compelled to write it for the masses.”
It appears that painting is not John’s priority right now. He’s busy writing new songs and getting ready to release a recording of those. He is also getting ready for another fishing season opener. “I do a lot of fishing – except in the heat of the summer. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, I gotta do it,” he says. And it’s easy for him living by the Gull River – he just has to go out his door and get in his boat in order to get his daily fix on the water.
