This all might strike the average reader as unlikely, to say the least. But things do happen this way sometimes, and for a man as driven as Johnson and with a sufficiently fresh approach to the art of guitar playing it's not so illogical a development. For Johnson is not a Wes Montgomery clone, or a follower of the fusion hotheads (and frets) of the 70s and 80s, nor is he a student of the Jimmy Raney or Charlie Byrd schools of picking. Johnson opts for acoustic most of the time, often 12-string, and delivers a very rhythmic, dynamic style which normally carries plenty of forward propulsion. He lays claim to no orthodoxy, but his early preferences have been lifelong musical companions, and he makes no bones about it. It is more likely to be Leo Kottke that you spot in his approach, rather than John McLaughlin.
'I see the guitar as a sort of mini-orchestra. I'm a huge Pete Townshend fan and Jimi Hendrix fan-that urgency is a big part of their musical psyche. People think of Hendrix as a technical player, interested in technique for its own sake, but he was more than that. They tell me I'm a technical player, too, but I've had no formal lessons, and can't read music. I play from the heart - that's the starting-point, always: not theory. Hendrix was the same, to my ears. My ultimate has always been to have a mini-orchestra in my hand. Technique is just a tool to deliver that vision I've always had for what I want to play.' More Profile >>>