![]() ![]() He is evaluating record-label deals and hopes to see the new disc in stores perhaps as soon as late summer, he said. He was proud to note that he has almost finished his latest CD, with only overdubs and mixing waiting for completion. His most recent release is the live DVD Anaheim, which came out in November 2008, and which he is supporting on the current tour.īut Johnson's famously slow studio-album output is going to pick up. Johnson has a few live albums to his credit as well, including a much-acclaimed outing with the guitar supergroup G3, which also included Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and another credited to his blues-rock side project, Alien Love Child. Released in 2005, Bloom followed its predecessor, Venus Isle, by nine years. His most recent studio set is the lovely and diverse Bloom. He has only released four in the last 22 years. (His first record, Seven Worlds, was recorded in the mid-1970s, but due to contractual complications, it was not released until 1998.)įrustrating to some listeners, though, has been the infrequent appearance of Johnson's studio albums. "There's no question about it: You have to have something interesting to play, a good song, you know? When it's not a solid composition, you can certainly appreciate really amazing playing, but it's just not interesting."Ī former session musician for the likes of Cat Stevens and Christopher Cross, Johnson began getting widespread notice for his playing in the early 1980s he released his general-release debut, Tones, in 1986, and has been revered as a bandleader ever since. He's been playing blues, rock, jazz, R&B, world music and country in a professional capacity-and attracting praise for it-since he was 12.īut Johnson, also a proficient singer and pianist, said technique must always be in service of the song. No one has ever accused Johnson of lacking technique. I think (guitar worship) came about because people were pushing the limits of the instrument technically, but the sad offshoot began where it became for some people all about the technique." "It was all about youth culture, and the wildness and adventurism in the music that came with that. Johnson argued that the guitar supplanted the sax to become the focus of maverick players who wanted test the boundaries of sound and skill. (The guitar) was originally the instrument that took the place of the saxophone," he said. ![]() "I think that over the decades, the reverence thing has gone through a lot of metamorphoses. ![]() I don't know if it is as much (of a) tribute to the artistry of what the great players can do anymore, as it is a worship of the appliance," said Johnson, 54, in a recent phone interview from his home in Austin. "The 'guitar hero' thing now is more like a flair or attitude thing. The born-and-raised Texan almost scoffs at the idea of guitar heroism. This, despite the fact that Johnson is considered by just about anyone in the know to be a genuine guitar hero- and the fact that his 1990 instrumental hit, "Cliffs of Dover," a canny meld of rock, classical and Celtic music, is featured in the near-ubiquitous Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In case you were wondering, Eric Johnson never has played the video game Guitar Hero.
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