A veteran performer in blues festivals and venues on the east coast John Carleton Dorchester grew up in rural Pennsylvania listening to old blues records. He started performing on a dare back in 2005. Never thinking the music would amount to much he chose "Johnny Never" as a stage name. But the joke was on him. His music did catch on. Johnny delivers Delta, Piedmont and East Texas Blues with a passion and authenticity that has been noted by blues enthusiasts and blues societies from Memphis to Philly.
In 2014 Johnny, with harmonica player, Zep Harpo, was quarter-finalist in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. In 2011, Johnny, along with his band, was the only regional act of three national acts selected by the Philadelphia Folksong Society to perform in a concert honoring the 100th birthday of blues legend, Robert Johnson. Offering up performances of soft blues ballads, passionate Delta slide moans and driving Little Walter and Muddy Waters riffs, Johnny’s dynamic finger style guitar work and passionate voice have brought audiences to their feet in shows from Memphis to New Jersey.
John Colgan-Davis, harmonica and vocals, started playing the harmonica in local blues and folk clubs back in the late 1960s while he was still a high school student. He played and recorded with Philadelphia singer-guitarist Jesse Graves and played with Bonnie Raitt when she lived in Philadelphia in the early 1970's. Through Bonnie, John got to meet and play with Mississippi Fred McDowell, Arthur Crudup, Buddy Guy, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and others. He has also jammed with James Cotton, John Hammond, Charlie Musselwhite, John Lee Hooker, Bill Dicey, and Louisiana Red. He has toured the Midwest and recorded two CDs—“Cold and Lonesome on a Train” and “Heroes and Hard Times”—with Tennessee bluesman Sparky Rucker, and played for three years with The John Cadillac Band. A founding member of The Dukes of Destiny, John also taught Social Studies at Friends Select School in Philadelphia for 29 years and has written articles and supplements for The Philadelphia Inquirer on Blacks in the American West, Black Literature, the History of Black Philadelphia, and other topics. He is also a guest columnist for the Chestnut Hill Local. John lives in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia.
https://johnnynever.com/
http://www.dukesofdestiny.com/