Big Jack Johnson is a native of Lambert, Mississippi and a lifelong resident of the state. He first recorded in 1961 at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. Big Jack gained national prominence in the late seventies as the singer, bass and guitar player in the critically acclaimed group the Jelly Roll Kings. He went on to record several solo records in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1994, he won the Best Live Performer award from Living Blues magazine and in 1995 the Most Outstanding Blues Musician award. Big Jack Johnson has also appeared in the films Juke Joint Saturday Night and Deep Blues. His musicianship is so renowned that he has played with Carl Perkins, Robert Nighthawk, Jimmy Reed and Tammy Wynette to name a few.

Big Jack Johnson signed exclusively with M.C. Records in 1996. He has since been recognized as one of the world's premier blues artists, garnering a total of nine W.C. Handy Award nominations thus far. In 1996, We Got To Stop This Killin' appeared on the Living Blues radio chart for four straight months. In 1997, Big Jack racked up an impressive array of award nominations: two W.C. Handy nominations (Song of the Year for »We Got To Stop This Killin'« and Best Male Contemporary Artist); three Living Blues nods (he won for Song of the Year); and a NAIRD nomination for Blues Record of the Year. That continued in 1998 with Big Jack's W.C. Handy nomination for Best Blues Guitarist.

In 1998, M.C. Records released All The Way Back, which appeared on the Living Blues radio chart for four months and was the 16th most popular blues recording of the year according to the chart. All The Way Back won the Crossroads Magazine Blues Record of the Year Award. It was nominated for an AFIM Award for Electric Blues Record of the Year and Johnson was also nominated for a 1999 W.C. Handy Award for Traditional Male Artist of the Year.

Jack's third M.C. Records album, Roots Stew, was released in 2000 and also went on to spend over four months on the Living Blues radio chart. It snagged him four more Handy nominations: Traditional Male Artist, Traditional Blues Album, Album of the Year, and Blues Song of the Year (»So Long, Frank Frost«).

For his latest album, Big Jack goes back even further to his roots with a mostly acoustic outing, which also features fellow M.C. Records artist and 2002 Grammy nominee Kim Wilson on harmonica. Entitled The Memphis Barbecue Sessions, the new album also features legendary blues pianist Pinetop Perkins on two cuts. The Memphis Barbecue Sessions is a tasty mix of Johnson originals and interpretations of some of his blues favorites from Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter and Elmore James.