Paul Thorn
Paul Thorn
Thursday November 18th, 2010 9:00 pm an evening with Paul Thorn
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi and raised among the same spirits (and some of the actual people) who nurtured a young Elvis generations before, Thorn has rambled down back roads and jumped out of airplanes, worked for years in a furniture factory, battled four-time world champion boxer Roberto Durán on national television, signed with and been dropped by a major label, opened for Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, and John Prine among many other headliners, and made some of the most emotionally restless yet fully accessible music of our time.
Still, Thorn’s story has never been complete. If you follow it back through his songs, at some point near the beginning the mysteries gather like a mist, obscuring the picture and leaving unanswered the question of how he acquired his ability to find brilliance buried in shadows, darkness in daylight, poetry in the mundane, and truth in the brutal beauties of life.
Rosie Ledet
Rosie Ledet
August 7th, 2010
Like so many other French kids raised in rural southwest Louisiana, she paid no particular attention to all the zydeco music that was around her in her formative years; even though her parents had tried to raise her with a healthy respect for zydeco music, the music held little appeal for her as a kid. But one day, after attending a zydeco dance when she was 16, hearing Boozoo Chavis, she was smitten.
Rosie hails from the rural town of Church Point, Louisiana, and learned to play the accordion by watching her husband and then practicing on his accordion while he worked during the day With her self-penned tunes, Ledet provides a unique female presence in the male-dominated zydeco world. She sings in both Creole French and in English. Her songs are often sly and lusty and combined with her natural good looks and distinctive, bluesy singing voice, she wows audiences wherever she goes.
A prolific songwriter, Rosie has released eight albums of her own material. All of her releases have been on the Maison de Soul label of the Flat Town Music Co. in Ville Platte. Rosie’s albums showcase superb lyrics, strong vocals and skillful accordion playing. Her newest CD, Pick It Up was released in 2005 and very well-received, critically and commercialy.
She and her band began performing in 1994 throughout the Texas-Louisiana triangle, and have gradually spread their touring base to include the rest of the U.S. Ledet and band have been on several European tours as well.
“Today’s premier female artist is Rosie Ledet, whose soulful voice kicks her male counterparts right out of the club”… Wall Street Journal
Here are some of Rosie’s awards she was presented with thru the years:
2008 LOUISIANA TREASURE AWARD BY BLACK HERITAGE ASSOCIATION OF LOUISIANA
2007 ZYDECO MUSIC & CREOLE HERITAGE AWARD~BEST FEMALE VOCALIST
2006 NEW ORLEANS BIG EASY AWARDS FOR BEST
ZYDECO ARTIST
2003 LOUISIANA TREASURE AWARD PRESENTED BY THE BLACK HERITAGE ASSOCIATION OF LOUISIANA
2001 BEST OF THE BEAT AWARDS BY OFF BEAT MAGAZINE:
~BEST ZYDECO VOCALIST
~BEST PERFORMER
~BEST BAND
2001 ZYDECO MUSIC & CREOLE HERITAGE AWARD ~FOR BEST FEMALE VOCALIST
2001 SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION AWARD~BEST ZYDECO BAND
1999 ZYDECO MUSIC & CREOLE HERITAGE AWARD~BEST FEMALE VOCALIST
Jim Suhler and Monkey Beat
DALLAS, TX -
Along with Suhler on guitar and lead vocals, the band includes bassist Calrton Powell, keyboardist Shawn Phares and drummer Jimmy Morgan. Together, they’ve ben terrorizing clubs, theaters and festivals alike with their flamethrower brand of blues/rock. with a major side order of the Texas border mythology added to keep it spicy.
The same take-no-prisoners attitude has prevailed in Jim Suhler’s playing as a guitarist with George Thorogood and the Destroyers, with whom he’s recorded, toured and written songs for over nine years. Suhler has often been included in many of the “Top Ten Guitarists” lists featured in several music publications.
Blasting out Texas blues/rock for over seventeen years, Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat announce the February 17, 2009, release of the band’s new cd, ‘TIJUANA BIBLE’, which will be released in the U.S. on Underworld Records, distributed nationally by Burnside Distribution. Produced by Jim Suhler and Tom Hambridge, ‘TIJUANA BIBLE’ is powered by thirteen original songs, plus unique takes on Elvin Biahop’s “Drunken Hearted Boy” (with Bishop as a special guest on slide guitar), Rory Gallagher’s “I Could’ve Had Religion” and AC/DC’s “Up To My Neck in You”. Additional special guests include Joe Bonamassa on lead guitar (”Deep Water Lullaby”) and Jimmy Hall (Wet Willie) on backing vocals (Po‘ Lightnin’).
“TIJUANA BIBLE’ was recorded at Ocean Way Studios and 1808 Studios in Nasville, as well as Audio Dallas inGarland , Texas. The album takes it’s title from the notorious “Tijuana Bible”, an old time pornographic comic book, typically “starring” famous politicians, film stars and sports heroes of the day. “No one is really sure where they originated, but Tijuana, with it’s creative approach to all things entertaining, is certainly a good place to guess”, says Jim Suhler.
Several of the songs on “TIJUANA BIBLE” are also featured on the 2008 DVD release “REAL TIME: LIVE IN TEXAS”, recorded at Dallas’ Granada Theater, which also includes bonus tracks filmed at the Kwadendamme Blues Festival in the Netherlands and in the historic Deep Ellum section of Dallas.
Walter Trout
Walter Trout
July 22nd, 2010
About Walter Trout -
“People ask me if they should call my music blues or rock, I tell them they can call it ‘Fred’ if they must have a label.”
That remark, along with the exclamation that “the blues shouldn’t be a museum… the music ought to constantly expand and be alive,” have been expressed again and again by Walter Trout during his 35+ year career. With the release of FULL CIRCLE, the statements hold true as Trout and his musical friends demonstrate their appreciation of all shades of the blues genre. The album reflects Walter Trout’s remarkable story, from his humble beginnings as a sideman in many a blues legends’ band through his rising solo star, arriving as one of blues music’s beloved interpreters. Read the rest of this entry »
Bonamassa Keeps Blues Alive in Schools
Bonamassa keeps blues alive in schools
BY WILLIAM KERNS
A-J ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Native American music forms this country’s oldest musical heritage, but the blues was the next pure music style to have its origin in the United States.
Blues in the Schools is a program developed by the Blues Foundation to maintain the art form’s legacy. Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa has volunteered in more than 100 cities, including Lubbock, to make appearances for Blues in the Schools.
Phil Cornell, owner of the Blue Lizard nightclub, said, Bonamassa came to town in November 2003 and did Blues in the Schools presentations at Coronado High School and South Plains College.
Bonamassa said that he was first approached by Jim Moody, president of the Route 66 Blues Project in Oklahoma City.
“When I did it, I knew that the blues might not be these kids’ personal taste in music,” Bonamassa said. “But I just saw their faces light up. They responded with conviction.
“I figured everyone should know who Robert Johnson is, why Muddy Waters is important and how the Rolling Stones got their name. It’s cool when they figure out that Led Zeppelin and Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson all have something in common.”
Moody, who describes Bonamassa’s playing style as “blues on steroids,” recalled that he arranged for the guitarist to make four Blues in the Schools appearances in two days in the Edmond, Okla., School District near Oklahoma City.
“Then Joe did a show on a Tuesday night,” Moody said, “and kids came out in droves. He turned a new generation on to the blues in Oklahoma City and made a name for himself.
“I think Joe likes doing the middle schools more than the high schools because the younger kids are not afraid to enjoy themselves. In high school, it’s not considered cool to enjoy a school program. His interaction is unbelievable, but then, Joe’s not much more than a kid himself.
“I still remember him saying, ‘Man, I really wish they had this when I was in school.’ ”
Bonamassa said, “I generally agree to do these when I have off days between shows, and sometimes on the day of a show. I know I’ve been blessed. I keep thinking how cool it would be if one kid followed his dream of becoming a musician after listening to some bozo named Joe Bonamassa at his school.”
william.kerns@lubbockonline.com 766-8712
Johnny A Clinic
Johnny A
Guitar Clinic for all ages at The Arbor Arts Studio with sponsor Maughan Studios 8405 N Rockwell Ste 13 SW corner Rockwell and NW Expressway
As one of the first artists signed to Steve Vai’s guitar-intensive Favored Nations label, Johnny A. has rapidly established himself as a premiere guitarist with a uniquely beautiful concept of the instrument. Johnny’s tasteful blend of blues, country, rock, and jazz, combined with his stunning guitar tones and masterful use of space and texture, have made him an underground guitar legend.
This Clinic explores the guitar style of Johnny A. in an entertaining and informative format. Watch Johnny and his band perform a few of his most popular songs from his two Favored Nations releases, Sometime Tuesday Morning and Get Inside. Each song is followed by a sit-down with Johnny as he talks about some of the specific concepts and techniques involved in playing the song. Also included are discussions about Johnny’s gear, influences, and approaches to writing and recording. Q & A after.
Michael Burks
Michael Burks
Friday May 21st
“Michael Burks is a flamethrower guitarist. He is the complete bluesman: songwriter, singer, riff-master, bandleader, and showman…Savage fury and heartfelt tenderness” –Chicago Sun-Times
“Michael Burks is a guitar slinger with a brawny tone, deeply emotional singing and rompin’, stompin’ blues power.” –GuitarOne
Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Michael “Iron Man” Burks stands tall as a major contemporary blues figure. With a nickname earned by his hours-long, intensely physical performances, fearsome guitar attack, tough, smoky vocals and the thousands of miles logged behind the wheel of his touring van, Burks is a modern blues hero. Nobody in today’s blues world successfully bridges searing electric guitar blues with unbridled rock and roll energy like Burks. The Chicago Sun-Times recently said Burks is “poised on the brink of major stardom.”
Boasting remarkable natural talent and a blue-collar work ethic, Michael Burks is a musician with deep roots in the blues tradition. He performs every song he plays with intensity, conviction and soul. Even though he has been playing music since he was a child, it was the release of Make It Rain, his Alligator Records debut in 2001, that brought Burks well-deserved national recognition and made him one of the blues world’s fastest-rising stars. His 2003 follow-up, I Smell Smoke, continued his upward trajectory, as his fan base increased as quickly as his bookings. With inspiration from Albert King, Freddie King and Albert Collins, Burks’ sound and style are all his own. Blues Revue says, “Burks delivers blazing, explosive solos and outrageous tone…part rock, part soul and filled with plenty of blues sensibility.” According to GuitarOne, “Burks is a legend in waiting.”
The waiting is now over. With the release of his new CD, Iron Man, Burks is set to take his place beside the biggest names in the blues. Produced by Burks and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer and fueled by Burks’ hard-driving road band, Iron Man (featuring seven of twelve songs written or co-written by Burks) is an electrifying slice of emotional, rocked-out blues. His fiery fretwork, gruff, fervent vocals and overwhelming intensity are captured here live in the studio. The album features some of the hottest guitar playing and most soulful singing Burks has ever recorded.
Born in Milwaukee in 1957, Michael quite literally entered the world with blues in his blood. Joe Burks, Michael’s grandfather, played acoustic Delta blues guitar in his hometown of Camden, Arkansas. A multi-talented man, Joe was a barber, carpenter and aviation mechanic in addition to playing in area juke joints. Michael’s father, Frederick, was a bass player. For years, Frederick Burks worked in Milwaukee steel mills and refineries during the day and spent his evenings performing in the city’s smoky, dimly-lit blues clubs, often backing harmonica legend Sonny Boy Williamson II, as well as other touring blues stars and local front men.
Michael first held a guitar when he was two years old, and Frederick immediately began teaching his son how to play. Equipped with a fully functional, child-size guitar, the young Burks began emulating the bass runs of his father. Soon he was learning scales and songs. By the age of five, he was diligently studying his father’s 45s, aided by an effective lesson plan. “I’ll give you a dollar if you learn this song by the time I’m home from work,” Frederick would tell his young prodigy. Sure enough, Michael would learn that tune inside out and sideways by the time his father walked through the front door. Michael had begun to collect a tall stack of dollar bills when the elder Burks realized his teaching tactics were burning an unwanted hole in his wallet. Finally, Frederick told his son, “Here’s another 45. You learn this one, and you’re gonna get a lickin’.” But Michael kept practicing, and by the time he was six, he played his first gig during a trip to his family’s hometown in Arkansas. The fledgling guitarist took the stage with his cousin’s band and thrilled an unsuspecting audience.
In the early 1970s, after a machine accident left his hand injured and his musical career severely hampered, Frederick Burks moved his family back to their southern home. There, Michael and his siblings helped their father build the Bradley Ferry Country Club – a 300-seat juke joint. By this time Michael was fronting his own band as well as backing several of the blues and R&B greats that passed through town. Johnnie Taylor and O.V. Wright were just two of the luminaries to call on Michael’s services. Business at the Bradley Ferry thrived for years, with Michael Burks leading the house band every Thursday through Saturday. Tables near the stage had to be reserved two weeks in advance.
When the Bradley Ferry finally closed in the mid-1980s, Michael needed to find a day job. For over a decade he worked as a mechanical technician for Lockheed-Martin; at one point during his stint with the advanced technology corporation he even built missile components. But Michael’s desire to perform remained strong, and in 1994 he formed a new band and began playing clubs and regional festivals. Despite his not having a record, the diesel-powered energy of Michael’s performances began to earn him festival offers from Florida to California. Fortunately, Michael’s boss was a blues lover. He recognized Michael’s ability and encouraged it, giving Burks the flexibility of long weekends in order to tour. On more than a few occasions, Lockheed even entertained its clients by flying them to Michael’s festival appearances.
Michael released his self-produced debut CD, From The Inside Out, in 1997. The album confidently announced Michael’s intention to take the blues world by storm. His impassioned, string-bending solos, combined with his fiery tone and smoldering vocals, left no doubt that Michael Burks was an emotionally-charged blues powerhouse. Critics and fans loved what they heard. Blues Access proclaimed From The Inside Out to be “the most impressive indie in recent memory,” and Living Blues rated it as one of “the best debut discs of the year.” In 2000, Burks received a Blues Music Award nomination for Best New Artist, even though he was already a hard-working professional.
It had become clear that Burks had to pursue his musical career full-time once again. Fueled by a tank full of positive reviews, Michael began to play more festivals than ever before, appearing at the Chicago Blues Festival, Telluride Blues Festival, Mississippi Valley Blues Fest and Kalamazoo Blues Fest, and making headlining appearances at the Mississippi Muddy Waters Blues Fest, Arkansas River Blues Fest and the Blind Willie Blues Fest, among others.
Burks joined the Alligator family in 2001 and released the critically acclaimed Make It Rain. The Chicago Sun-Times called the album “chilling and heartfelt.” Billboard agreed, declaring, “Burks is a powerhouse blues guitar slinger…he blasts through licks like Clapton used to play–think lightning–just because he can. He is a great guitarist.” Vintage Guitar said, “Gospel-ringed, sweet and nasty. Burks will warm your heart at the same time he puts a chill down your back.” He immediately hit the road in support of the CD, bringing his blistering blues to fans across the country and throughout Europe and Australia as well, with gigs at clubs, concert halls and major festivals everywhere.
His next album, I Smell Smoke, featured songs fueled by Burks’ feral guitar playing and tough, soulful vocals. As raw and passionate as ever, Burks played with the precision and dedication of the seasoned veteran that he is. Living Blues said, “Burks’ fretwork is skin-tight yet emotionally expressive. His voice is dusky and sensual yet shot through with virility. Burks burns his signature onto almost everything he touches with aching passion and the probing intensity of his guitar. He has the ability and the imagination to fuse the best of the old and the new.” Burks received three Blues Music Award nominations for his work on the CD, including Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year and Blues Song Of The Year for the title track.
The unstoppable, heartfelt intensity that Michael brings to the stage lies at the very core of his appeal. Dedicated fans around the country and in Europe, Australia and South America already know and appreciate the sweat, passion and intensity he pours out each night. A constant string of performances at premier festivals and clubs continues to add even more word-of-mouth fuel to the fire. Burks’ deep, soul-infused music and undeniable charisma make him an overwhelming force in the blues. The music on the new CD – forged by his unquestionable talent and fueled by the experience of years on the road – proves that electric guitar blues is alive and well in the skillful hands of the Iron Man, Michael Burks.
Watermelon Slim
Watermelon Slim and the Workers
Wednesday March 17th St Patty’s Day Celebration
At least once in every man’s life everything seems to come together magically. When the road leading to such times is long and grueling, the zenith becomes exponentially more rewarding. Bill Homans a.k.a. Watermelon Slim is the extraordinary wheel man behind this redemption story road trip.
In December 2006 Watermelon Slim garnered a record-tying six 2007 Blues Music Award nominations for Artist, Entertainer, Album, Band, Song, and Traditional Album of the Year. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have ever landed six. His 2006 self-titled release was ranked #1 in MOJO Magazine’s 2006 Top Blues CDs, won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Blues Album of the Year, hit #1 on the Living Blues Radio Chart, debuted at #13 on the Billboard Blues Radio Chart ahead of both Robert Cray and North Mississippi Allstars, and won the Blues Critic Award for 2006 Album of the Year.
In April, 2007 Watermelon Slim and The Workers released The Wheel Man, his second for NorthernBlues Music and his fourth album in five years. Jerry Wexler, a huge Watermelon Slim fan after hearing Slim’s 2005 self-titled release, eagerly offered to write the liner notes upon listening to early tracks saying Slim “is a one-of-a-kind pickin’ ‘n’n singing Okie dynamo.” The CD hit #1 on the Living Blues Radio Charts, #2 on the Roots Music Blues Charts and debuted in the Top 10 in Billboard’s Blues charts.
The Memphis Flyer led it’s terrific CD review with the question “Does anyone in modern pop music have a more intriguing biography than Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans?” Slim was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina listening to his maid sing John Lee Hooker and other blues songs around the house. His father was a progressive attorney and ex-freedom rider and his brother is now a classical musician. Slim dropped out of Middlebury College to enlist for Vietnam. While laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed he taught himself upside-down left-handed slide guitar on a $5 balsawood model using a triangle pick cut from a rusty coffee can top and his Army issued Zippo lighter as the slide.
Returning home an fervent anti-war activist, Slim first appeared on the music scene with the release of the only known record by a veteran during the Vietnam War. The project was Merry Airbrakes, a 1973 protest tinged LP with tracks Country Joe McDonald later covered.
In the following 30 plus years Slim has been a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller (where he lost part of his finger), firewood salesman, collection agent, and even officiated funerals. At times he got by as a small time criminal. At one point he was forced to flee Boston where he played peace rallies, sit-ins and rabbleroused musically with the likes of Bonnie Raitt.
He ended up farming watermelons in Oklahoma - hence his stage name and current home base. Somewhere in those decades Slim completed two undergrad degrees in history and journalism.
While roommates, buddies and musical partner with the heavy drinking Henry ‘Sunflower’ Vestine of Canned Heat, Slim was able to finish a masters degree and member of Mensa, the social networking group reserved for members with certified genius IQs.
Throughout his storied past, it has always been truck driving that Slim returned to. While trucking and hauling industrial waste for thankless bosses at hourly wages to support himself and his family, his id yearned for release of the musician inside. Many of Slim’s current songs began a cappella in his rig keeping him awake and entertained.
In 2002 Slim suffered a near fatal heart attack. His brush with death gave him a new perspective on mortality, direction and life ambitions. He says, “Everything I do now has a sharper pleasure to it. I’ve lived a fuller life than most people could in two. If I go now, I’ve got a good education, I’ve lived on three continents, and I’ve played music with a bunch of immortal blues players. I’ve fought in a war and against a war. I’ve seen an awful lot and I’ve done an awful lot. If my plane went down tomorrow, I’d go out on top.”
If it’s any indication from raving reviews and features in Guitar One, HARP, Blues Revue, Toronto Star, Chicago Sun-Times, NPR, House of Blues Radio Hour, BBC’s World Service Programme, XM Satellite Radio and others, Watermelon Slim may have finally settled in on his chosen vocation.
www.watermelonslim.com / www.northernblues.com/ www.southernartist.net
For press materials, interview requests, and/or more information on
WATERMELON SLIM, contact Michael McClune Media & Mktg at 310.319.1199 (phone) or 858.342.2626 (cell) or michael@michaelmcclune.net
Copyright 2009 Watermelon Slim - Created by Wells Designs
Johnny A
Johnny A
Saturday April 17th, 9 pm
For Johnny A., the guitar has held a lifelong fascination, her six strings exerting a powerful influence and addictive beauty since the first time he held them. The pursuit of this musical lady with the perfect shape has driven his years - shaping the course of his life – taking him places he never could have imagined. Through inspiring moments of ecstatic improvisation, deep contemplation and inevitable gaps of frustration it has been a stormy affair with a tempestuous hollow-body lover, but the marriage has been nothing less than remarkable.
Johnny A. is widely regarded as one of America’s finest contemporary guitarists. Gibson thinks so – their Custom Shop designed a Signature Edition guitar per his specific requests which, when it was marketed in 2003, placed him in an exclusive club that included legends like BB King, Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, Joe Perry, Pat Martino and Les Paul himself. The public thinks so too - Johnny A.’s latest works have sold many thousands of copies as well as being his personal best. The most recent CD’s - 2004’s Get Inside and 1999’s Sometime Tuesday Morning, are the critically acclaimed solo culmination of a lifetime of learning, sharing and bonding in a long parade of bands and players.
As a bright-eyed six-year old in Malden, Massachusetts, Johnny became fascinated with the drums, a habit his father encouraged by buying him a kit. There were lessons and the Jr. High School marching band, but as fun as the skins were, he realized that their melodic capability was quite limited. Rhythm had taken a backseat to melody and since the most melodic instrument in any 60’s beat group was guitar, those six-strings now began their inexorable pull on Johnny A’s life. Once the four “mop-tops” from Liverpool dropped like a bomb from Ed Sullivan’s studio into his living room in 1964, his course was set.
A $49 Lafayette Electronics guitar became Johnny A.’s first girlfriend. A humble beginning for sure, but his mom was no fool and wanted to be safe if this ‘guitar thing’ just turned out to be another passing teenage phase. It wasn’t. Johnny saw the Beatles at Suffolk Downs outside of Boston in 1966 and their magical presence sent the impressionable lad into a blur of activity – sweeping up hair and doing odd jobs at his aunt’s salon to save up the 88 bucks needed to buy a Vox Clubman guitar. Then, of course, he had to have a Gretsch too. No, this was no passing phase.
Fate leaned in and dealt a tough one when the active 13-year old developed a curvature in his spine and suffered massive and painful muscle spasms as a result. Doctors put Johnny in a full body cast for 14 months and eventual body brace for two years to immobilize his back and neck during treatment. As much as this terrible handicap limited the schoolboy in his activities, it didn’t stop him from playing. In fact, the condition actually forced Johnny to improve his skills since he could no longer look down at his fingers while forming chords and picking.
In high school he was freed from the cast, graduated and then went on to a semester and a half at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. Ironically, Johnny had no interest in attending even one of his guitar lessons at the prestigious school - they taught textbook Bebop, while he had moved onto the latest sounds: Progressive Rock and Jazz/Rock Fusion. The instructors preached Lester Young, but Johnny grooved on Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin, King Crimson and Return to Forever featuring Bill Connors and Chick Corea. He bid adieu to Berklee and schooled himself, both at home and in Boston’s hippie-era club scene at places like the Ark and Boston Tea Party.
In amongst going to see Ten Years After, Steppenwolf, Edger Winter’s White Trash, Rhinoceros, Spirit and dozens more, Johnny put together his own group called Squanty Roo. They might not have blazed a trail to Budokan, but they did play the Fusion sounds that the guitarist was digging on. After that it was a short pilgrimage to San Francisco to absorb some counterculture and do a brief stint with percussionist Mingo Lewis.
By 1975 Johnny A. had worked out of his progressive phase and hungered to put together a basic rock outfit with the energy of Aerosmith and the melodic fascinations of the Beatles. It was the pre-punk period and Boston was about to become a hotbed of local talent and a leading city to support the brand new wave of bands and attitude. Johnny formed the group The Streets, a leather-clad unit on the ground floor of hard rock that embraced the sounds of 60’s British Invasion pop. When Boston’s punk scene finally climbed out of a handful of dingy rock and roll basements with its first wave of rock recruits for the brand new era, The Streets were there, scoring a major local radio hit with the song “What Gives.”
Eventually, personnel changes killed The Streets, but the guitarist formed other bands – Johnny A.’s Hidden Secret and Hearts on Fire, a unit featuring his wife Beth on vocals. With a sound that drew from country-western twang but rocked solid, Hearts on Fire preceded Maria McKee’s Lone Justice and pioneered a distinctive place within Boston’s thriving mid-80’s local scene. Competing in the 1986 edition of WBCN-FM’s annual Rock and Roll Rumble spotlighting two dozen of the year’s best up and coming bands, Hearts on Fire blazed a trail all the way into the finals, becoming recognized truly as one of New England’s finest and brightest hopes.
But Johnny broke up the group instead after realizing that their direction had become “calculated” and “not honest.” Disillusioned after reaching so far within the band format, he began playing with other artists like former Derek and the Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock before hooking up with legendary J. Geils Band front man Peter Wolf. Johnny stayed with Wolf for seven years, playing on his albums and co-producing one of them – 1996’s Long Line, as well as supporting the charismatic singer onstage around the world. During this period, in 1994, the Gibson Guitar Company first recognized Johnny’s talents, announcing that the company was officially endorsing his fruitful career.
But once again Johnny A. felt he had taken a direction and pursuit as far as he could. The idea began to take hold that he should return to a solo direction – this time creating an album of melodies and music that swirled about in his head. Even though it didn’t seem as if there was any commercial potential in the move, that wasn’t the point – Johnny needed to bring this project to life and it wouldn’t resemble anything he’d been involved in the past. Peter Wolf and Johnny A. parted ways and the guitarist began recording tracks for his new experiment – an album of music made merely to satisfy his own muse with no commercial constraints whatsoever.
The result was Sometime Tuesday Morning, a solo instrumental guitar album that Johnny A. released on his own label for his own enjoyment plus that of a few intrigued friends and family members. But the warmth of its guitar tones and allure of melody made Sometime Tuesday Morning much more – it made the album a surprise hit. After gigs Johnny began selling dozens, then hundreds, and eventually thousands of copies out of his car trunk. The attention led to a re-release and distribution deal with Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label and an ever-widening circle of high-prestige gigs with the likes of B.B. King, Robert Cray, and Jeff Beck plus an appearance at Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads Guitar Festival” in 2004. That success gave Johnny A. the confidence to assemble his second instrumental tour de force called Get Inside, another critically acclaimed album that traveled even deeper into the richness of guitar texture and melody. The release once again garnered national radio airplay and inspired another round of touring commitments and personal appearances. An instructional guitar DVD has followed plus plans for his newest project – a live CD/DVD featuring special guests and new material. It has been a long way from that first $49 guitar to Gibson’s Johnny A. Signature Edition (Metallica’s Kirke Hammett recently bought one), but it’s been a fruitful journey. Johnny A. is still doing what he loves to do the most - play guitar and create music, and he’s still getting better at it all the time.