eric johnson
A new acoustic album from one of the acknowledged connoisseurs of tone proves to be as much of a masterpiece as any of his celebrated electric work
Back in the mid-80s, Eric Johnson was a name whispered about by the guitar-playing cognoscenti who had managed to track down EJ’s album Tones. Here was a guitarist who was doing something truly different in a decade where instrumental guitar had begun to sound the same. By the time Ah Via Musicom was released six years later, Johnson’s name was synonymous with tasteful, chop-laden soloing and songwriting finesse. He also became known for his unforgiving attitudes towards tone, famously declaring in these very pages that he could detect a tonal difference between Duracell and other makes of battery deployed in effects pedals.
His attention to detail and forthright self-criticism in the studio has extended to his recent acoustic album, too: “I had a bunch of acoustic songs and some of them you record and say, ‘Ah, that’s not really that good…’ Other times I would record and not get a performance that was good enough.”
The album in question, simply titled EJ, is another surprise for the guitar world. With instrumentals interspersed with songs – some home-brewed, others covers – the guitar styles veer from the romantic, nylon-string driven Serinidad to fiery Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel influenced fingerstyle showstoppers, such as The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise.
After years of producing electric albums, why, we wonder, has he decided to unplug?
“I’ve been wanting to do it for years and I’ve just kind of always put it off because I get involved in some electric tour, new record or stuff just coming up here and there. It’s been in the back of my mind for years to make a record, and there are three songs on there that I recorded years ago. I just decided I need to get in and do this thing. I actually have done a series of acoustic solo tours – a handful of them – over the last seven or eight years. Every now and then I’d do one, but never had an acoustic record – people started saying, ‘Well, you’re doing these shows, but you don’t have an acoustic record…’” Do you enjoy playing acoustic guitar? “It’s something I’ve always done, just sitting around my living room playing piano or acoustic guitar. But, for whatever reason, I never really included it in my repertoire of what I show to the public. At some point, I just thought I should show all sides that interest me and that I try to work on.” Which came first with you, playing electric or acoustic guitar? “I started out on electric. I started playing when I was 11 years old, but I didn’t start playing acoustic till I was about 17. That was when I got my first acoustic and started dabbling around with it, writing songs and stuff. I would play it a little bit in electric shows, but then I probably started getting a little more serious about it in my late 20s.” Who are your influences as far as acoustic players are concerned? “Originally, I would say Simon & Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell. I was a huge fan of Joni’s records Ladies Of The Canyon and Blue. Then for solo, intimate guitar with voice, I was really drawn to James Taylor, Bert Jansch and Paul Simon. I really came to appreciate Bob Dylan and, later on, I got into Shakti, Tommy Emmanuel and Michael Hedges – I really was a big Michael Hedges fan.” How did you set about gathering the material for the album? “My premise for doing the record was to perform the stuff in the studio. I wanted to keep it as live as possible, so I would just go in the studio and record the songs two or three times and see if I got a good take, and if I didn’t, I’d revisit it a few days later. Some of the songs just needed more work or I wasn’t performing them live appropriately, so I’ve got a bunch of rough versions of more acoustic tunes. I want to try to do a second acoustic record, hopefully next year.” You’ve got a mix of originals and covers as well; Hendrix’s One Rainy Wish, for instance.What was the motivation to put that track on the album? “I like all of Hendrix’s music, but I’ve always loved that song in particular. I just thought that I’ve played that tune with the electric
band and I need to try to do a different arrangement for it, a different approach, because any songs that are just really good can be interpreted in a variety of different ways. So I thought it might be interesting to try a whole different approach on it.”
The instrumental section at the end of
One Rainy Wish develops into a jazz feel… “Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Mitch Mitchell would always have a swing to his playing, which really gave a beautiful feel to Hendrix’s music. I thought that Mitch was equally important in the beauty of Jimi’s music. It’s a cool song – it’s in 6/8 and it has that kind of swing feel to it that lends itself to different ways of interpretation.”
Are there any other special moments on the album for you? “Song For Irene is a song I wrote for my mom; her name is Irene. I just wanted to write a soft tempo acoustic piece that kinda had James Taylor-type fingerpicking in it. I also like the song Wonder, because I like the lyrics and I like the meaning of it and stuff. I always enjoy that tune. It’s kinda just the mystery of life: you can’t really quantify or figure out why things are the way they are, you just enjoy and appreciate the magic.”
You swap over to nylon-string for Serinidad – it’s a different feel from steel-string… “Absolutely, yeah. I’m no pro on nylonstring, as far as playing it traditionally. I enjoy the sound of it and keep practising, trying to work on it. That particular tune was actually just an improv. We just turned on the recorder and I jammed; I’m not even sure what I played on that, but I guess the whole intent was to try and capture an improvisational moment.” You’re known principally as an electric player. Do you have to adjust technique over to acoustic? Acoustic, in general, is less forgiving than an electric guitar, wouldn’t you agree? “Absolutely! It’s funny, I was just waking up this morning going, ‘I’ve been practising for this tour that’s coming up in a few weeks and I’m so beat up, because I’ve been practising acoustic all day long for the last week.’ It is less forgiving, I think, for a variety of reasons. First off, if you’re out there doing it by yourself, all of a sudden you have a solo instrument that’s got to articulate bass, rhythm and melody, so you’ve got two or three things going on at once and, right there, that’s a challenge for me. Then, adding to that, if you want to try and do fingerpicking, it is so different than an electric guitar. I love old Hank Williams’ stuff and some of the old country stuff where you’re just strumming chords. I love the beautiful sound of the strumming.
“I guess, for me, when I decided I wanted to play acoustic, I wanted to do it in a more fingerpicking way. It was just apples and oranges, really, but it was just the way I wanted to do it, so wanting to try to develop fingerpicking was a whole other world and a whole other learning curve and I have to work at it. It doesn’t come easy for me, so it’s more of a challenge to do.”
Have you put heavier gauge strings on the acoustics that you’re using? “They’re 12s, yes. Although in the studio there were a couple of cuts I put 11s on, because there were a lot of pull-offs on Once Upon A Time In Texas. I always use mediums and wasn’t feeling that I was getting the take right, so I switched to 11s and it gave a little bit more of a slinkier kind of pull-off feel to it.”
What was the principal guitar that you used for this album? “A 1981 Martin D-45. Then I also used this really old Silvertone that a luthier named Ed Reynolds totally redid; he put a new fingerboard on, shaved some of the braces