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Richard Leo Johnson
The Legend of Vernon McAlister, Richard Leo Johnson's newest recording on Cuneiform, is an astonishing and magical release �" a sort of acoustic guitar equivalent to the classic Lewis Carroll novel, Alice in Wonderland. Early in the 21st C., Johnson's neighbor in Savannah, GA introduced him to a mildewed National Duolian steel-bodied guitar, dating from the early 1930s. Also called a resonator guitar because its uniquely shaped, steel body self-amplified or resonated sound, the Duolian was a mass-produced, inexpensive, and road-worthy instrument popular among blues, jazz, Hawaiian musicians who worked roadside taverns in the Depression years. Previously, Johnson had used a variety of finely-made, modern guitars �" most notably an 18-string, custom made, double-necked McCullum �" to express his fleet-fingered, idiosyncratic and highly innovative style. But as soon as he heard the Duolian, and discovered the name "Vernon McAlister" crudely scratched into its side, Johnson tumbled deep inside the resonator's web, just as Alice had fallen down the rabbit hole. The Legend of Vernon McAlister was born, resulting in an all-instrumental CD that can serve as soundtrack or ‘aural' history to a written tale (readable on vernonmcalister.com). It is perhaps the best and most certainly the most imaginative project that this highly imaginative guitarist has ever done.
Richard Leo Johnson is one of the most innovative and inspired acoustic guitarists on the current American music scene. Amazon.com's editors called Johnson "perhaps the next in a short line of guitar greats--a line that includes [Michael] Hedges, Derek Bailey, Pat Metheny, Sonny Sharrock, and a few others," while Playboy touted him as "the most innovative guitarist since Jim Hendrix."
A passionate and intuitive player, he is often compared to such masters of the steel-string acoustic guitar as Bruce Cockburn, John Fahey, Michael Hedges, Burt Jansch, Adrian Legg, Leo Kottke, Steve Tibbetts, and Ralph Towner. But Johnson's style, characterized by complexity, exhilarating speed, and hauntingly unfamiliar harmonies created through ‘found' tunings, marks this self-taught player apart from any other musician.
Johnson was raised in America's deep South, in a small Arkansas town in the Mississippi Delta. He began playing guitar at age 9, briefly taking lessons from a hard-drinking oil field worker before deciding he'd learn more on his own. Johnson recalls that his "real jumping off point" was a cassette he received as a teenager, which featured John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra's Inner Mounting Flame on one side, and Leo Kottke's Greenhouse on the other: Says Johnson: "I thought it was one person playing this stuff! The initial impact was that it was somehow possible to make something happen that fused the linear liquidity of McLaughlin and the dense harmonic structure and drive of Kottke." The distinctive playing of Oregon's guitarist, Ralph Towner also impressed Johnson. Practicing incessantly on his own, he developed an idiosyncratic playing style which combined plucking and strumming, alternating between 6, 12, and 18 strings, using all parts of the guitar, and employing 30 tunings he devised. Music remained a private passion while Johnson pursued architectural photography as a profession, receiving an MFA from Louisiana Tech, running his own studio, and creating photos sought by collectors such as D.C.'s Corcoran Museum and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
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Richard Leo Johnson and Gregg Bendian: Who Knew Charlie Shoe?
by John Kelman
Talk to most guitarists and you'll find self-admitted gear heads looking for the latest and greatest--or, conversely, vintage--instruments, representing unparalleled craftsmanship. Still, guitarists like ex-Ry Cooder and Jackson Browne collaborator David Lindley revel in finding old instruments that may be cheap but possess unmistakable character. Guitarist Richard Leo Johnson continues the story begun on The Legend of Vernon McAlister (Cuneiform, 2006) with Who Knew Charlie Shoe?, finding great and surprising beauty in dime-a-dozen instruments.
Folklore has ...
read moreRichard Leo Johnson: The Legend of Vernon McAlister
by John Kelman
One look at the cover of guitarist Richard Leo Johnson's latest album, with its sepia-toned photograph of a serious-looking Johnson seated with a Duolian steel-bodied guitar, and you might expect a radical departure from Poetry of Appliance (Cuneiform, 2004). And you'd not be far from wrong. Unlike Johnson's last record, which featured his esoteric working trio and a multiplicity of guitars, The Legend of Vernon McAlister is a true solo album--one man, one guitar.
Equally, the Americana of Morning Glory, ...
read moreRichard Leo Johnson: Poetry of Appliance
by John Kelman
With only three records to his name-- Fingertip Slip (Blue Note, '99), Language (Blue Note, '00), and now his new release, Poetry of Appliance --guitarist Richard Leo Johnson has managed to create a small but vital body of work that combines the best of Ralph Towner, Leo Kottke, Steve Tibbetts and Michael Hedges. Working mainly on acoustic guitar, and a double-neck one that has both six and twelve-string variants to boot, Johnson has evolved a self-taught style that, like the ...
read moreRichard Leo Johnson: Language
by AAJ Staff
Picking up where he left off with his solo debut Fingertip Ship, Richard Leo Johnson takes his solo guitar lines through a variety of sounds and styles, backed vicariously by a talented group of musicians which includes drummer Matt Wilson, Govt. Mule guitarist Warren Haynes and a brief guest spot by Johnson’s ten-year-old daughter Tess.
Instead of gathering his musical heroes and friends in his studio, Johnson sent each of his collaborators his or her own tape ...
read moreRichard Leo Johnson: Fingertip Ship
by AAJ Staff
Self-taught and self-tuned, guitarist/photographer Richard Leo Johnson takes listeners on a thirteen-part voyage on his Fingertip Ship. Though he pays tribute to Jazz legends Tony Bennett, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt and Jaco Pastorius and explores the feelings of Pink Floyd and The Who, Johnson’s technique, style and delivery are unlike any other performer. Often hitting the frets without knowing exactly what "key" he may be in (if any), Johnson’s intuitive and idiosyncratic approach ranges from the delicate and spare to ...
read moreRichard Leo Johnson: Fingertip Ship
by Matthew S. Robinson
Self-taught and self-tuned, guitarist/photographer Richard Leo Johnson takes listeners on a thirteen-part voyage on his Fingertip Ship. Though he pays tribute to Jazz legends Tony Bennett, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt and Jaco Pastorius and explores the feelings of Pink Floyd and The Who, Johnson’s technique, style and delivery are unlike any other performer. Often hitting the frets without knowing exactly what key" he may be in (if any), Johnson’s intuitive and idiosyncratic approach ranges from the delicate and spare to ...
read moreRichard Leo Johnson: Language
by Jim Santella
Because of its location, Nashville did not become a center for jazz or blues, as did Memphis and St. Louis. Instead, the Tennessee hub has become a city known for quite a few things in general and its country-western music theme in particular. Arkansas-born guitarist Richard Leo Johnson, 44, has spent some time in Nashville and recognizes the melting-pot nature of its culture. Bluegrass, folk, Celtic music and continental European elements show up on Language. While Johnson’s debut album last ...
read more"...the most innovative guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. Johnson is a one man guitar orchestra." --Vic Garbarini, Playboy