Justin Time
Records Signs New Orleans-Based Blues/Rock Guitarist Brent
Johnson
Debut CD,
Set the World on
Fire, Set for April
8 & Features Specials Guests Alvin Youngblood Hart & Sonny
Landreth
MONTREAL, CANADA
– Canadian label Justin Time Records announces the signing of New Orleans-based
blues/rock guitarist Brent Johnson and will release his debut album,
Set the World on
Fire, on April 8.
Johnson is backed on the new CD by his road-tested band of Bill Blok (bass,
backing vocals), John Perkins (drums) and Wayne Lohr (keyboards), along with
special guest guitarists Alvin Youngblood Hart, who adds his scintillating touch
on three tracks, and legendary slide master Sonny Landreth on one song.
Set the World on
Fire was produced by
Brent Johnson and recorded/mixed by Ben Lorio at The Music Shed in New Orleans.
“My sound is
rooted in the blues, though I don't pretend to be a purist, and I don't want to
be," Johnson explains. “I write music based on my experiences and the sounds I
grew up with; I never want to pretend that I had the same experiences as the old
bluesmen did, so I'm not going to go around trying to sound like them. What I do
is put the emphasis on the feeling of the music, the passion, the urgency, the
directness - that's the goal.”
Brent Johnson
has achieved his goal quite admirably on the appropriately-titled
Set the World on
Fire, as he burns up
the speakers with an incendiary mix of both electric guitar and slide guitar
sounds on the album’s 11 cuts, including seven originals and covers of “Meet Me
in the Morning” (Bob Dylan), “Meet Me in the Bottom” (Howlin’ Wolf), “As the
Years Go Passing By” (Albert King) and “The Hucklebuck” (Paul Williams). Justin
Time Records owner Jim West has been a longtime fan and gave Brent free rein
over the material and production. As this is his first album release, Brent is
looking forward to releasing and touring these original songs and feeling the
reaction to his work from an audience.
Brent describes
himself as “always a guitar slinger ... I always loved songwriters and wrote
songs for myself.” Interestingly, despite an omnivorous musical appetite and a
very distinct love of blues, Brent, when pushed, would list his four favorite
songwriters as eclectic Houston guitarist Chris Whitley, Austin's own Ian Moore,
(a writer himself influenced by world, folk and blues music), along with British
stalwarts Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer. He describes his favorite music as
“raw, honest and dirty.”
Johnson’s
passionate vocals and soulfully powerful guitar work shines throughout the new
album. On “Meet Me in the Morning,” he and Alvin Youngblood Hart trades licks in
a serious blues guitar conversation (Alvin on electric, Brent on slide). They go
at it again on the original song, “The Ticket,” driving home a strong blues
message. On “Long Way Back to New Orleans, he’s joined by Sonny Landreth, who
adds his signature slide guitar, helping to push the track towards his Crescent
City hometown. Hart returns one more time on the Howlin’ Wolf classic, “Meet Me
in the Bottom,” where both he and Brent channel the chugging sounds made famous
by the Wolf’s iconic guitarist, Hubert Sumlin.
On an album
filled with highlights, two additional songs are also worth mentioning. On “As
the Years Go Passing By” (perhaps best-known from the great Albert King’s
version), Johnson delivers a tour-de-force 13 minutes-plus of
emotionally-charged singing and guitar playing that adds to the track’s
intensity. And on “The Hucklebuck” (a 1949 number one R&B hit by saxman Paul
Williams), Johnson shows he can swing and rock with the best of them on an
instrumental that showcases his versatility and musical maturity as a guitar
player.
A guitar prodigy
from the age of four, South Texas born Brent Johnson always knew where he wanted
his playing to take him. Drinking in the very best of blues, jazz, rock, punk,
country and world music, by the time his family moved to New Orleans in his
teens, he was predestined towards a career in music.
Writing his own
material, Brent formed several high school bands, all with a lean to the blues;
and then joined the group Under the Gun, who built a considerable following on
the local live circuit in Louisiana and beyond. As admiring of the style of The
Clash, Albert King, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix, Albert Collins or Black Flag
and Thelonious Monk, Brent's passion for playing was immediate and intense for
his audience.
By serendipity,
New Orleans' legendary “Braille Blues Daddy” Bryan Lee heard Brent's playing and
immediately recognized his virtuosity, drive and dedication to his craft and to
the blues. At 22, Brent was seconded into Bryan Lee and the Blues Power Band,
with whom he has recorded and toured nationally and internationally for the past
ten years.
“Playing with
Bryan has really helped me open my ears,” Brent says. “For example, Bryan always
had keyboard players before I joined him, so I had to learn how to play like an
organist, like a horn section - how to play rhythm like a group of instruments -
instead of solely like a guitarist. I've learned how to swing, how to play
be-bop and also how to take that aggression that I love and give it room to move
- new colors to paint with.”
Through his long
association with Bryan Lee, Brent has played many major jazz and blues festivals
around the world and had the pleasure of playing with such outstanding blues
artists as Buddy Guy, Lonnie Brooks, Eddie Shaw, Gatemouth Brown, David Maxwell,
Bruce Katz, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Howlin' Wolf associate Hubert Sumlin.
In between
touring with Lee, Brent went out on the road with John Perkins (drums) and Bill
Blok (bass) playing Brent's original compositions, with himself on vocals. They
garnered a great response and decided to go into the recording studio, with the
inclusion of Wayne Lohr
on
keyboards.
As his debut
album is released, Brent emphasizes his commitment to keep writing his own
songs. “I want to bring something to the audience that sounds familiar, but that
is our own in the end,” he states. Always demonstrating his creativity in his
playing, he is excited and confident in putting his own songs before the public.
“I believe there are no limits,” he declares. “I'm going to have fun with this
for a long time!”
BRENT
JOHNSON TOUR ITINERARY
3/28-3/29 The Shed BBQ
Ocean Springs, MS
4/8 The Hideaway Café
(Suncoast Blues Society) St. Petersburg, FL
4/9 The Little
Bar
Goodland, FL
4/10 Englewood's on Dearborn
Englewood,
FL
4/11-4/12 B. B. King
Blues Club
W. Palm Beach, FL
4/13
Ace's
Bradenton, FL
4/14
The Rockstar Lounge
Lake City,
FL
4/16 The
Alternate Root Television Taping Boston,
MA
4/18
Jonathan's Landing
Magnolia, DE
4/25
Teddy's Juke Joint
Zachary, LA
4/26
Murky Waters
Gulfport, MS
5/02
Ruby's Roadhouse
Mandeville, LA
-30-
