By BILL MILKOWSKI
Published: February, 2005

Richard Leo Johnson's approach to the guitar is so intuitive and idiosyncratic that he has often had trouble finding the right "fit" with other musicians. Because he has created a wholly new language on his instrument based on all manner of oddball tunings, extended techniques and his own quirky sense of rhythm, Johnson has mainly performed solo in his 150 gig-per-year touring schedule. But now the fingerstyle guitarist has finally found two key collaborators to complement his eccentric vision. For Poetry of Appliance (Cuneiform), he joins forces with two former members of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra: violinist Ricardo Ochoa (who doubles on theremin) and woodwind specialist Andrew Ripley (who plays melodica and Yamaha wind-driven synth). "They look at me as somebody who has his own weird vocabulary," says Johnson, "and they get off on that because their whole life has been strictly classical music."