dht@druri.UUCP (Davis Tucker) (10/23/85)
HOT FLASH: ERIC JOHNSON, Texas guitar wizard, is releasing an album on Warner Brothers' Reprise label, titled "Tones", which is due out December 29th. It is slated to have 8 cuts on it, with at least 2 singles set for airplay - the instru- mental "Zap", and slower, jazz-blues vocal tune "Crystal Shore". As of mid- September, 10 tunes had been put in the can. As an interesting aside, there are only two other acts currently on the Reprise label besides Johnson - Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACKGROUND: Eric Johnson is a young (28) guitar player from Austin, Texas. While his first album, recorded when he was 17, is considered a collector's item in Texas and the South (titled "Electromagnets") and is unavailable, he spent the remainder of his career in the most spotlighted obscurity of any true talent in years. His management company, Lone Wolf, had a five-year contract with Eric Johnson, and did not promote him outside of Texas and Louisiana. Johnson has received accolades from the likes of Steve Morse, Jeff Beck, and Stanley Clarke for being one of the best young guitarists ever (or in Morse's words, "the best you've never heard") to come on the scene. Numerous attempts to get a record contract fell through, many deals were offerred, many refused, some good, most bad, none great. Throughout this, Johnson toured a small circuit of Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, making as good of a living as one could expect. Most of his shows sold out. His influence on young guitarists in Texas is greater than Stevie Ray Vaughan's and he commands more respect from the up-and-coming for his ability. There have been at least fifteen major local bands in these areas which were Johnson-inspired, and for years he has been considered Texas' best-kept secret, wresting that title from Joe Ely and The Fabulous Thunderbirds after both of these acts gained some notoriety (or at the very least, a record contract). Johnson is not strictly a fusion guitarist. He can, and does, play blues, accoustic (6 and 12), country-and-western in the Doc Watson/Jerry Reed tradition, rock, improvisational jazz, a selection of Hendrix covers when the mood strikes (my favorite being "Red House"), and usually does. His shows are ninety percent original tunes, the few covers being either unheard-of picking tunes, Hendrix, and Weather Report, with a Beck tune here or there inside an improvisational solo. His equipment consists of the standard Strat-Boogie-Fender Reverb sound, and he uses a wide variety of effects, from old Echoplexes to DDL's, phase shifters, a Crybaby, and various other odds and ends. He is respected by other guitarists for his refusal to hide anything; he doesn't mind people taking pictures of the settings on his equipment (a common occurrence), he doesn't tape over his effects boxes or use a special board, nor does he do his complicated licks or triplets with his back to the audience. His command of the guitar is equivalent to Morse and Beck, in that he can draw *any* sound out at almost any time. His only weakness seems to be in the area of feedback, which he can never get. I admit I'm biased. I grew up with Eric, in a metaphorical sense. In ten years, I've seen him at least seventy times. Most of my albums I haven't played that much. Johnson bootlegs were hard-fought prizes where I came from, and I have a friend who is still bent out of shape at me for the scratch I put in his "Electromagnets" record. His music is the kind that makes your soul dance, your head race, and your eyes blur. And it's fantastic for the world outside of Texas to finally discover someone as talented and multifaceted and hard- working as Eric Johnson. So for those of you who thought that Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lightnin' Hopkins, Johnny Winter, and Billy Gibbons were all there is when it comes to Texas guitar, here's someone else to join the pantheon who may, depending on the test of time and of course, individual taste, prove to be better than all of them. Davis Tucker