Award-winning artist to sing at Civic Center
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As an artist Johnson has had a number of chart-topping songs, including ?Bluer Than Blue,? ?The Moon is Still Over Her Shoulder,? and ?Give Me Wings,? during a successful career that began in the mid-?60s. The silky voiced singer, who now resides in Nashville, is also noted for his unique guitar style and his ability to capture a crowd with his solo performances.
Johnson said from the time he was a small child, there was never any question about his choosing music as a career.
?It?s the only thing I?ve ever wanted to do,? he said. ?I think it was standing around the player piano and harmonizing with my brothers and my sister and my mom and dad, and singing in the choir as a little Catholic boy. Then I started playing guitar when I was 13, and I just never quit.?
The guitar playing actually began as a case of turning calamity into good fortune.
?I had pneumonia, this was back in the days when they still made house calls,? Johnson recalled. ?And they hooked me up in a bed with an oxygen tent in the living room. My brother had been hit by a car and he was in the bed next to me. So my dad bought us a guitar and we were off to the races.?
Johnson says his musical influences have been pretty eclectic.
?I guess my first guitar influence would be Carlos Montoya,? Johnson said. ?Then it was Chuck Berry and then Charlie Byrd.?
Byrd was a noted finger-style jazz guitarist, and no doubt all these influences played into Johnson?s own guitar technique. As Johnson moved into his 20s a new generation of performers and songwriters appeared and played a part in his musical growth.
?James Taylor hit the scene and I was totally amazed by him,? Johnson said, ?and all the singer/songwriters of that era, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Carole King.?
Though Johnson has had some success as a songwriter, with tunes he has written or co-written recorded by popular artists like Alison Krauss, The Kendalls, and Leo Kottke, as well as himself, he says that is not really his main focus as an artist. His approach to songwriting is, like his guitar playing, uniquely his own.
?I?m not primarily a writer,? he said. ?That?s not my first muse. I write when there?s something I want to sing, but I don?t know what it is, so I?ll make something up. It?s really that primitive.?
Though he loves music, dealing with the business aspect of his career, as with many musicians, can be problematic.
?It?s doing something I love,? he said. ?But it?s difficult when it?s also your livelihood. Sometimes that really interferes with the labor of love. It?s more labor than love. I would say doing it for a living interferes with the creative process sometimes.
?It?s like, when I?m playing my guitar working on a song and the phone rings, I don?t want to answer the phone,? Johnson said. ?And when I?m on the phone on business, I don?t want to pick up the guitar. It?s just hard to work both halves, that?s all.?
Johnson will be performing at several venues while he is in town. He will appear early in the afternoon at Motlow College. Then he will be headlining Songwriters Night, a fundraiser for Families in Crisis which also features Jacky Jack White and a number of other performers such as Clark Williams and steel player Earl Hughes. Later on in the evening, downtown will ring with the sound of his guitar when he performs at Capalano?s on Main Street.