gone!
His apartment was destroyed.
his car? under water.
Perhaps most disturbing is the guitar destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. “I don’t have any of my guitars except one, which is the cheapest guitar I own. It’s in a plastic case that apparently floats. That thing was salvaged and I still have it. But on top of that, I lost a Les Paul, a custom shop Strat, and all the master recordings of everything I was doing at the time were gone.
“I happened to be out of town that weekend. I didn’t evacuate. I was watching from a distance, so in a way you’re just grateful at first. When you see people really suffering, it’s hard to feel sorry for the loss. I feel sad about stuff. So, I consider myself really lucky, and I have a lot to do at the same time.”
music may have saved Eric JohnsonReasonable, but took some detours at the beginning. He moved halfway around the world from New Orleans to New Zealand, where he lived for four years.
“People would say, ‘Well, why would you do something as big as moving out of the country?’ What I can really say is wake up to find you have only your suitcase and everything else you own is gone. I just graduated from college with a degree in Philosophy. I never intended to do anything with it, really. I mean, I had this idea that I might go on to a graduate program or something like that, but it never really occurred to me that I was going to do it for a living.
“Music was already my passion and has been my passion throughout college. I just happened to be able to afford to go through college for free in Louisiana, so I did. But you know, basically I had to come up with something The direction of the effort, something to look forward to moving back to the city that is still being cleaned up.
“You know, it’s frustrating to save money to do it. It’s a hard thing to feel like trying to get back where you were. So trying to move somewhere else gave me a purpose and gave me a lot of effort Hope. It’s a beautiful place. I love it and New Zealand holds a very special place in my heart.
“I mean, it’s a very peaceful country, a beautiful country with all kinds of natural phenomena, from beaches to glaciers and mountains. That’s everything. It’s very clean, green, peaceful; and immigration is possible , because they have immigration policies that are good for young people trying to move there. So, I was able to go and spend some time there.
“All of this seems like a long time ago now, but it gave me a chance to let off some existential pressure. It’s hard to figure out a way to really describe it, but I need to know that I can leave and go as far as I want. Probably far, away from anything I wanted to stay away from in order to figure out where I wanted to go, and the music ended up bringing me back to New Orleans.”
johnson Lived in New Zealand for four years and settled in New Orleans in the 2010s. He has been a session musician with artists such as Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne and the Neville Brothers, and has collaborated with JJ Grey, Eric Lindell ( Eric Lindell, Neville Brothers and Tab Benoit. His last four solo albums have reached the top ten on the Billboard blues chart.
his new album Abyss and Dirty July 28th dropthe th On Raff Records. This is likely a collaboration between RL Burnside and Marc Bolan’s T-Rex. Johnson is a bit intimidating, like RL Burnside’s line: “From the deep and the filthy place/Where the night gets blurry/I’m a thunderstorm from the south/Baby don’t worry/I’ll treat you right tonight/ Let’s go now.”
T-Rex developed an abandoned rock feel in the 1960s, which allowed heavy metal to push boundaries. “Produced by Jesse Dayton (Supersuckers, Rob Zombie), the band recorded in the studio, live with bassist Eric Vogel (Big Sam’s Funky Nation / Fred Wesley) and Grammy Award-winning drummer Terence Higgins (Ani DiFranco / Warren Haynes) Played. /label Benoit).
“Honestly, I think I’m just as interested in the sound as I am in the song. When I was a kid, the things that got me excited, hearing the things that made me say ‘I want to play the guitar’. I wanted to do it. It’s the sound of it. It’s not, ‘Oh, this song is about this thing. It reminds me of another thing that happened once. It’s the raw, visceral, immediate experience of the sound itself .
“I think deadlines and tight schedules help remove a lot of distraction and overthinking. People ask me, ‘You must have written a lot during the pandemic. ’ To be honest, a lot of times I don’t think writing is easy. I try to keep engaging in different ways, but it’s kind of like how do you know what you’re reflecting on when it’s happening.
“So, when the deadline came to get into the studio, I was suddenly able to focus. A lot of these songs were written two weeks before going into the studio, but the producer and I sang a few different songs over and over, but They were written before I went into the studio. Like we were supposed to[record]the week before, I wrote some more. I was like, “Look at these. ’ As you get closer to the recording date, something becomes clear. Suddenly you know what you need to do.
“My first exposure to rock music was MTV, and then I saw stage shows like Metallica, so that was my first ‘oh my god’. I had to do it my whole life,” but This translates to the sound of early blues. It has always been the texture and sound that really attracted me. So, I think the upshot is that, for me, I naturally move toward a certain level of excitement about what I’m doing. I’m not interested and can’t try to sound retro or dated. “
He strums a steel-resonator guitar on “Just Like New,” excitedly saying, “It’s such a beautiful sound, and for me, it’s part of my job. In a sense, Playing a guitar made in the same way as in the 30’s and strumming it with the same freehand as in the 60’s might sound old or something in a way, but I’m not trying to make it sound like Very old.
“My main work is the national team. It’s actually the 2013 vintage, but I mean they’re made in much the same way as they were then (1930s). That’s what I’ve come across, and I’ve had Some old songs, they’re only as good as if they’re actually singing, or they’ve got a lot of work to do. So, I’m very happy with the new product.”
I told Johnson that everyone always tells me their new release is their best yet.does he think deep and dirty Is he the best?
“Yeah, I don’t think there’s a single song in it that I’m not looking forward to playing live. I think part of me in my journey as a songwriter and artist has always wanted to do some research on the writing and the different riffs and the different tones. More experimentation, but at the same time part of me wants to try more stuff. Not wanting to stray that far from the roots. They become sane or rewritten because I’m trying to get out of that space and improvise in the moment.
“I don’t think the record is trying to stick to a certain format or genre. I think for me it becomes more natural, the songwriting, the improvisation and the rawness all reach a more natural place, and I feel like my More things happen with each record because I’m not specifically trying to stay in a particular box, but I’m trying to make sure that the human element and the feeling is still the driving force there, you know. Inspiration is the drive , not in a rut. So yeah, I think it’s my best record to date, and I’m really looking forward to hanging out.
Personal note: I try to address each article to a specific recipient. This article was written for JD Nash. RIP brother.
