What We Say
Eric Johnson, long hailed as one of the world’s preeminent electric guitarists, celebrates his acoustic side with EJ, his 12th album as a leader. Emphasizing Johnson’s formidable skills as a singer-songwriter, his first completely unplugged album is also his most immediate and intimate. Johnson self-produced the album and performed nine of its thirteen tracks unaccompanied in his Austin, Texas Saucer Sound studio. The other tracks feature guest musicians such as renowned guitarist Doyle Dykes, violinist Molly Emerman, cellist John Hagen, and longtime Johnson accompanists Tommy Taylor and Wayne Salzmann on drums and Roscoe Beck and Chris Maresh on acoustic bass.
For Johnson, the creation of sublime music has always been about the journey inward, an approach shared by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix, and other visionaries. Over the years, his unwavering devotion to perfecting his art has become as legendary as his attention to the instruments he plays. This is evident in his songs, interviews and the way he plays guitar and piano. As Stevie Ray Vaughan put it, “The guy has done more trying to be the best that he can be than anybody I’ve ever seen. He plays all the time, and tries to get his instrument in perfect shape all the time. He works hard on his tone, sound, techniques. He does incredible things with all kinds of guitars – electric, lap steel, acoustic, everything. Few people understand that when the guy was fifteen, he was playing Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery stuff, and he was doing it right – that’s pretty cool. Eric is a wonderful cat. He’s always been one of my favorite people in the world, as well as one of my favorite guitar players.”
Proclaimed “one of the most respected guitarists on the planet” by Guitar Player magazine, Johnson was raised in a musical household in Austin, Texas. He began on piano at age five and took up guitar six years later, when bands like the Beatles, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix ruled the airwaves. His influences soon expanded to include such diverse guitarists as Eric Clapton, Django Reinhardt, Jerry Reed, and Chet Atkins.
With EJ, listeners are given a rare and long-awaited opportunity to hear the guitarist in an all-acoustic setting – a first for Johnson. “Almost all of that material was cut live,” he says. “Some of the songs I actually sang and played at the same time – just live in the studio. Recording this way gave it more of an honest realism and organic emotion. Especially on the acoustic, you just have to get in there and play.” In essence, EJ brings listeners as close as possible to hearing the singer-songwriter perform in his own living room, as he continues his lifelong quest to produce music that entertains, inspires, and heals.
