Lightning on the Earth - Kevin Johnson

The newly released music CD entitled, “Lightning on the Earth” is a unique blend of country blues and contemporary folk songs. Clinton resident, Kevin Johnson has self produced a collection of original tunes and lyrics that sometime seem to border on the mystical. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Johnson has spent the last 20 years researching ancient culture, philosophy, natural health, sourdough bread baking and meditation. Recently, he’s taken to the art of writing songs about the advantages of living the simple life.

“Lightning on the Earth – Esoteric Folk Songs” was recorded and produced by Joel Whitten at the Metal Shed Studio in Baton Rouge. (It’s available at www.bluesandbread.newlibertyvillage.com.) The project began in early May after Johnson arranged a set of new material he’d written over the winter of 2011. Most of the songs are biographical in that they depict emotional challenges and hardships that have shaped and led he and his wife, Donna, to choose a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity.

“I wanted to write songs that poetically express issues that matter to me, rather than just telling stories.” he said. “A lot of the lyrics are ambiguous because they actually contain a couple of different meanings. The words can be interpreted in a number of ways.”

Several talented musicians assisted in the project, including Adrian Percy, “Fiddlin’ Doc” Chaney, Heather Feierabend and Alan Morton, all members of the local Americana Folk group, the Fugitive Poets. Also featured are Donna Johnson on baritone ukulele, Joel Whitten (bass & keyboard), his son Sam on drums, Steven Smith (lead guitar and harmonica), and Betsy Braud, an extremely gifted jazz flutist.
The title track, “Lightning on the Earth” is really a song about man loving woman with purity and integrity. Though it’s not a love song per se, the song is sort of a testimony to the spiritual love between a committed couple. The cover art was painted by Kevin’s daughter and depicts lightning striking a tree, the re-energizing connection between heaven and earth – male and female. On his blues and bread blog, Johnson writes, “I knew that song needed a female vocalist and that Heather had the perfect voice for it. She’s got that sweet country quality that makes the song credible.”

While in the process of working on the recording, Johnson said he kept thinking about the past, about all the incredible musicians who developed their skills watching and listening to other musicians, before radio and records. “What I really wished,” he said, “was that I could have heard my Grandfather, William Zurich Coglizer, play the fiddle. Since he died when I was very young, I never knew him. But he had an old German violin that was made sometime around 1870. After grandpa died the fiddle sat in the closet at my aunt’s house for 43 years, wrapped up in woolen cloth and duct tape. No one on that side of my family was interested in it, so one day I called my aunt and asked her if I could have it. Surprisingly, she packaged it up and mailed it to me last summer. I was absolutely stunned to see it for the first time and hold it in my hands. I wanted that fiddle featured on my new CD, so I asked “Doc” Chaney to play it on several of the tunes. When Doc played on the song “Hear Her Drawing Near” I just knew it was going to be one of the sweetest songs I’d ever recorded because of that fiddle.”

“To me, familiar songs bring back good feelings of a simpler time, but new songs give us hope for a brighter future.” Whatever economic conditions are unfolding in these challenging times, it will be those who come together in a sense of community and spirit of helpfulness that are going to get through it. This CD is filled with hope and vision for the dawn of a new and brighter world.

Barry Hebert – Worn Wooden Floors

When I finally received Barry Hebert’s new CD – “Worn Wooden Floors,” I knew I needed to set aside a full hour to really give it a listen. This recording features some of the best folk rock, country ballads you’ll ever hear. When the acoustic rhythm guitar starts on the opening track “Three Miles Ahead, Fifty Years Behind,” you’re hooked. Barry told me he got the idea for the song after seeing the phase on a t-shirt.

The musicianship featured here, the quality of the production as well as the timing is so clean you just can’t help but feel the groove. Barry gives a lot of credit to Al Berard who owns the studio in Cecilia, LA. where the CD was engineered and produced. Al also plays mandolin and electric guitar on the recording, giving the entire project a level of professionalism that you’d expect to have come out of Nashville.

The songs on this CD weave stories, through a tapestry of images and melody, and take the listener on an audio landscape journey that is relaxing and fun to listen to. As a songwriter, Barry puts a lot of thoughtfulness into the words he chooses. His lyrics evoke pictures and similes that draw you in. there is no doubt that these songs deserve careful listening.

When I first heard “St. Francisville” with the headphones on, my eyes were closed and all of a sudden, I felt as if I was there, walking barefoot along the river, sitting at a coffeeshop or strolling among the live oaks at The Myrtles Plantation. At first I was puzzled about the album’s title, until I heard the line “where theres’ front porch swings and worn wooden floors, even your first time here, feels like you been here before…” Barry’s talent for song-smithing is terrific. It is obviously a skill that he spent a lot of time and patience to develop. Furthermore, he really has a knack for paying attention to what’s going on around him and keeping his eyes and ears open to phases and ideas that can inspire a good song.

My absolute favorite track is “Hot Beer, Cold Woman”. This song echoes that typical new country sound you hear on the radio, with the classic electric guitar opening lick, but unlike the commercial tunes, these lyrics really grabbed my attention. When he sings, “With a hot beer and a cold woman, I don’t think I want another round,” I thought how clever that was. I could relate to it. And that’s the thing about this record, each song has the ability to lure and entice you so that you want to listen to the words.

On the track entitled, “Your Tears,” Barry tenderly expresses the emotional joy of falling in love, getting married and experiencing the wonder at seeing a newborn baby. When I first listened to it I thought about the zillions of people throughout earth’s history who have experienced the same thing. And yet, somehow we seem to take for granted these common events, which in the end, turn out to be what matters most. Barry’s ability to hint at the simplest things, such as the little nuances between men and women, is what impresses me the most about his songwriting.

“Rings” is a nice tune too. In the same way, he takes a seemingly common place object and then poetically composes a song around it. This tune is another example that reveals his keen sense of observation. As Barry describes the symbolic significance of things like wedding rings, nose rings, and toe rings and so on, all the while he’s steering the song into a perceptive metaphor about the cyclical nature of life.

Barry Hebert has been professionally involved with music for a long time. In the early years he wasn’t particularly interested in singing, preferring to stand aside and play, but sometime around 1982 he became involved with a country group called the Basin Brothers Band, performing in and around South Louisiana. The group enjoyed some real success, playing the Texas dancehall circuit and eventually touring nationally.

During the last few years, however, Barry has focused more on his own songs. Worn Wooden Floors is a delightful CD and the start of something good. I hope you will take the time to really listen to it. Check out Barry Hebert’s new webpage at www.barryhebertmusic.com

The Ukulele Revolution

It has been over thirty years since the ukulele was given any seriousness in American popular music. Now a recent comeback of this noble little instrument is bringing about a worldwide revolution. Artists all over the world are embracing the ukulele as a major voice in their new brand of contemporary pop music. Such artists include folk singer songwriters Uni, Lil’ Rev and Victoria Vox, as well as classic virtuosos like James Hill and Jake Shimbakuro. There are even Hip Hop artists playing ukuleles and famous people you may have never expected like, Paul McCartney, Pete Townsend and Robert Plant, who all revere the mighty uke for its sophistication and versatility.

The ukulele was the vehicle by which many people enjoyed the classic Tin Pan Alley and ragtime songs of the 1920’s. In those days it was essential that every young man going to college have a uke. Now, the new craze is causing a shortage in availability for some ukulele manufacturers around the country to provide instruments.

In fact, this hasn’t happened since the Great Depression. Back then, few people had extra money to purchase guitars and other stringed instruments. But C.F. Martin & Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania was able to survive the economic downturn by producing affordable quality ukulele’s at a time when people really valued making music themselves. Maybe the current downturn in the American economy has been influential in bringing about a similar round of interest.

Here in South Louisiana, one can find an occasional ukulele singer-songwriter playing at a pub or community market. My wife and I recently met a young girl named Sarah singing and playing at an open mic at Birdman Coffee & Books in St. Francisville. Her enthusiasm for the ukulele and her voice were enchanting.

Donna and I have both been very excited about ukuleles. We’ve been incorporating them in our own music performances for the past two years. And when we play at markets or private parties, we always try to include ragtime songs, folk and pop tunes using baritone and tenor ukes as well as acoustic guitar and harmonica.

We enjoy the delightful voicings of these little instruments and want to see other people enjoy them as well. So recently we decided to begin hosting ukulele workshops. Along with our friend, Charlene Heaton, we’ve formed the Baton Rouge Ukulele Club as a way to support others who want to enjoy ukulele music.

To get a club established and recruit more participants there is a need to offer introductory workshops and classes. Therefore, the first workshop we’ll direct is scheduled for September 25, 2011 at Birdman Coffee & Books. Following workshops are planned for Baton Rouge and Hammond too. This is an opportunity to introduce others to playing, as well as network with people who want to experience the purity and simplicity of ukes. The cost is only $25.00. Ukuleles will be available for sale for those who don’t already have one.

The workshop is specifically tailored for beginners, people with no previous musical knowledge or skill. Everything you need to get started right away will be covered in this three hour introductory class. It will include: a brief history, how to tune and maintain the instrument, playing melody, chords and songs, strumming and finger picking techniques, chord progressions, simple harmonized scales. This is a great chance to get started the right way, learning how to be a part of music jams and singing circles.

For additional information about the workshop of monthly club meetings, please contact the Baton Rouge Ukulele Club via e-mail at: brukuleleclub.yahoo.com

Rhythm & Grooves: Blues for Kids

This is my second year to travel around the great state of Louisiana and share traditional folk and blues music for kids. Last year Donna and I traveled to cajun country, mostly around Jennings and Ville Platte. This year we'll be down in Cameron Parish, south of Lake Charles, which still hasn't recovered from the effects of the hurricane of 2005. Also, on the circuit is Catahoula Parish, Terrebone and Lafayette.

Sadly the arts budget has been drastically cut this year and next year will be even worse. The state has only received about 1 million dollars in funds which is more than a 70% cut in arts programs. Part of the joy in being about to visit these rural areas, is bringing some cultural folk heritage to kids who often never get to see live music.

More later...

Kevin Johnson – Lightning on the Earth

My latest CD project gets underway in the middle of May. I’ll be back at Joel Whitten’s Metal Shed Studio in Baton Rouge to record some new songs. It’s really weird and wonderful this time around. When I wrote the Songs for Gilead Valley, I spent weeks trying to incorporate some of the blues themes that I was learning after having listened for months on end to the old records of Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, and Tommy Johnson and so on. But this time, most of the songs I wrote were all hammered out in just one night.

One day, I was baking a batch of bread and listening to the Whitmark recordings of Bob Dylan. These are some vintage raw demos that he did in the early 60’s and I just loved how straightforward his songwriting was. Dylan simply strummed and sang verses that he obviously penned quickly. Some of it was crude, but a lot of it was brilliant. After a few hours I thought to myself, “Man, I should be able to write stuff like that.” So I went to the computer and just decided to empty my mind all at once. In fact I didn’t even try to make it sensible or even edit it. I just dumped out words on the screen. After about three hours of doing this, I came up with six or seven songs. It was incredible. I’ve always thought that it was necessary to be very thoughtful and clever whenever you want to write a song. And though that is often true, it doesn’t have to be. There is a lot of great stuff out there in the cosmic consciousness, as long as you’re willing to let it flow out and not judge it.

A couple of days later I worked up rhythm and melodies to the verses and the songs were done. Though I wasn’t trying to write in any particular style, I realize that the tunes were coming out folksier than the Gilead Valley material. Since I’ve been interested in the wisdom of A Course in Miracles for many years, I also realize that some of my lyrics have a kind of Course theme to them. One in particular is an anthem-like tune called “The Real World.”

“When I close my eyes it’s clear as day
Nothing here can stand in the way
If you could only hear & trust what I say
Come on, my friend, there’ll be a real world someday
Why wait for heaven
When love is around
Why wait for heaven
There’s a real world now”

In fact, my friend Marnia Robinson (reuniting.info) who is also a Course student recently sent me song ideas that she wrote some twenty years ago. In following the same desire to express feelings from the Course she wrote one I really like entitled “Now is the Time.” I noodled around with the lyrics a few days ago and a melody just flowed out effortlessly. It’s great stuff. She wrote,

“Now is the time, spread your wings and fly
Sail through the stars, there’s nothing too high
Lift up your eyes, cast your gaze to the sky
All of your dreams can come true if you try
From above, all is love
We are one…
It is begun.”

So why is the record going to be titled, “Lightning on the Earth”? Here’s the story: I recently became interested in the information on healing relationships through Marnia’s website. And one of the things that really impressed me is the idea that most men need to learn to heal themselves around the issue of sexuality and women. The image of lightning on the earth came to me while watching a storm one night. I saw a flash hit a tree and it felt like this tremendous male energy grounding and balancing itself in alignment with the female (earth). I realized that this was symbolic of what I’d been working on in myself. So the song, “Lightning on the Earth” is a lively bluegrass tune that expresses the joy a woman feels when a man begins to love her purely, like ‘lightning on the earth’. I’m currently scouting around for the right woman to record the vocal for me. What’s neat is that my friend, Adrian Percy from the band, the Fugitive Poets, is going to help me out with the recording, playing some guitar licks and banjo. Now if I can just entice Steve Smith to come back in the studio and do some of his harmonica and incredible acoustic G-licks, it will be even better. More later…

Steve Judice - When Darkness Falls

If there is a “Zen to the art of Songwriting”, Steve Judice is a real master at the craft. His latest CD entitled “When Darkness Falls” is a compilation of some of the most thoughtful, brilliant musical narrative. And the storytelling is first rate. For example, the opening tune, “Rockin’ the Blues Away” (written along with his wife, Kathy) is a lyrical work of genius describing a homecoming queen who was forced to give up her dreams because she became pregnant; or how about “Private Miller’s Momma’s House”, a song which grabs your heart right from the start with a somber account in verse about those who didn’t come home after the war…

“Granny killed the rooster, the day I got home from Nam.
She cooked him up with dirty rice and a mess of candied yams
But I couldn’t think about eatin’, I sat quiet as a mouse
I kept on thinking about the empty chair at Private Miller’s Momma’s house.”

Even though Steve doesn’t always live what he writes about, it doesn’t matter because he feels it. And that’s the thing that really impresses me about his songwriting, Steve Judice’s unique knack for it all comes from the fact that he pays attention to life, he listens to people. Unlike a lot of veteran songwriters I’ve met before, he isn’t full of himself. And this is the one thing that amazes me when I see him at a performance, Steve talks to people, he’s interested in them. And not only does he like all kinds of music, he likes people as well. His sensitivity to other people’s suffering is obvious in the song he wrote about the people who died in the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. He writes, “…they gave us nothing to bury but his hope for the future…” On the first anniversary of the disaster (in April 2011), a radio station in New Orleans played the song.

The quality of this recording is amazing, especially given he fact that the whole thing was set down at Swamp Studio (Cedar Creek, Texas) in only four days. It proves what can be accomplished when you’re under the gun. Steve’s voice is powerful and sublime. You can hear his passion in these songs. The musicianship is delightful, featuring a wide variety of rhythm, instrumentation and harmony, thanks to the multi-talented Slim Bawb who plays just about every instrument imaginable on this record (resonator guitar, banjo, bass, mandolin, pedal steel, organ, mojo stomp, background vocals). Steve’s acoustic Gibson guitar playing is solid and he put a lot a thought into making arrangements that keep a listener interested.

I think my favorite tune features Barry Hebert on accordion, a song called “Slow Down,” a cheerful little Cajun ditty about appreciating the present moment and living for today. (See, I told you Steve was a Zen Songwriter!) It’s a terrific album and one that I really want to listen to over and over.

Robert Johnson Tribute, May 7, 2011 at Taste of Louisiana Cafe (Denham Springs, LA)

Robert Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous Delta Blues musicians. Considered by some to be the “Grandfather of Rock and Roll,” his style influenced many, including, Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Rory Block, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and others. He displayed a remarkable combination of
singing, guitar skills and tremendous songwriting talent.
As a tribute to Robert Johnson’s 100th birthday, I'll be at Taste of Louisiana Café (105 N. Range Ave., Denham springs, LA) to share some of Robert Johnson’s most popular tunes as well as other songs from the early 1900’s. This is a great opportunity to learn more about Robert Johnson's music and meet some other blues fans. There will be dinner and drink specials available. For more information, call 225-664-4181.
Hope to see you there.