after much ado and even much more delay, the long-awaited “von the revelator” album from von John was release in september 2010. Since then it has sold well under a million copies, just in the USA.

the album is Entitled “Von the Revelator” after fans began chanting that during von’s concert performances of the gospel blues song, john the revelator.

in tribute to the era of recordings when mono ruled and stereo was the new thing, both mono and stereo versions of the album will be available for sale.

The Album includes a dozen studio recordings of favorites from von’s concerts,

1. •big railroad blues

2. •i want some of your pie

3. •beat it on down the line

4. •on the road again

5. •sittin’ on top of the world

6. •statesboro blues

7. •cocaine habit blues

8. •The judgment day rag

9. •now I got You Blues

10. •Sweet home chicago

11. •if i had my way

12. •john the revelator

there was a great deal of fuss

about getting signed as a second life avatar to a real-life record label ironically called reality entertainment, but after all the news had died down, von johin soon found himself facing some real life

distractions that caused a series of

delays in completing the coming album

that it seemed like it would never get

recorded let alone released.

after all the press, the pressure was on to make a great album, so Both the label and von knew the recording couldn’t be rushed to market after all that attention was paid to the signing. soon after, von started the first sessions in sept ’08 in nashville, streaming the live studio sessions as they happened into second life, allowing his friends and fans to experience the initial tracks live as they were recorded.

the tracks needed a lot more work than what was captured that first day, with just von johin and guest blues-harpist & Second life avatar hurtmouth mccord recording the core songs. von wanted to deliver an album that gave the listener the feel of sitting in front of a live jug band blues performance, and that meant multi-tracking guitar and bass parts, percussion, banjo, ukelele, various vocal parts, and more. von also invited second life blues musician noma falta to play bass on one of the songs, sweet home chicago. well, all of these things take time and when shoved in-between a busy first life, they can take even longer. in all, over twenty songs were recorded and mixed, allowing them to narrow it down to the final twelve songs that would make the cut for the album release.

the album was finally finished. but even this only after a prolonged series of additional recording sessions in nashville, tn at hot haus studios followed by more tracking sessions at johin’s own blues note studio and another session at the musician’s institute in hollywood, ca for a couple of additional songs. Von was finally able to return to hot haus to re-mix the masters in both stereo and mono versions.

by then, johin found himself wondering if all the work and fuss was worth the hassle, and even if his current label was still the right home for it. a lot of time had passed since the signing, and he wondered if his unique album fit in well with the kind of acts normally found on his label.

reality is a busy label, and with von johin's busy real and second life, von was thinking it didn’t seem he and reality were going to be able to get together to get the album scheduled for release, and he even considered shelving it or just releasing it himself through tune-core or cdbaby. unsure what to do, johin asked reality’s ceo for his thoughts, and if reality would just let him go another direction. reality graciously agreed to let von move on with no fuss

locobop.com is home to blues greats like rufus thomas, luther ingram, jerry butler, eddie floyd and a host of other great blues acts, von johin’s album fit with locobop like a foot in an old brown shoe. when this all started, it seemed an honor but a little odd to be on the same label as kc & the sunshine band, marcy playground and other non-blues acts. at locobop, von was now in the company of some of his blues heros, having his music accepted there was very validating.

it all happened pretty quickly this time. von johin joined the label, locobop downloaded the masters from johin’s server and took care of the music publishing & album artwork in one fell swoop.

Von never planned to come into second life and do anything other than maybe one show a week for fun, it all kind of exploded from there. with his new home at locobop.com, von hopes to find subsequent recordings coming out quickly as he works to try to rise to level of the people with whom he now shares a spot on the roster, and hope’s ya’ll enjoy what he comes up with next.

von the revelator is available in cd through amazon.com, as well as digital downloads from amazon, itunes, and other usual download sites.