By JON PARELES
Published: March 5, 2006

The sounds of an old steel-bodied National Duolian guitar enthralled Richard Leo Johnson, who has been recording his acoustic guitar pieces since the early 1990's. On "The Legend of Vernon McAlister" (Cuneiform), Mr. Johnson revels in the Duolian's metallic tone, its resonances, its sharp plinks and its capacity to slide and sustain. The pieces he overdubbed often draw on folky picking patterns, but those down-home materials can be enveloped in eerie near-electronic wails, quasi-orchestral surges and spiky percussive sounds — all made with just that steel guitar. It sounds as if Mr. Johson has glimpsed the Duolian's haunted inner life. Selections and an apocryphal tale about the name scratched into the guitar are at www.vernonmcalister.com.
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