ACM nominee engineer Gena Johnson crafts hit records

Inside the Nashville basement studio of audio engineer Gena Johnson, she has mementos from many of the artists she’s helped to record and who have also shaped her own career.

A turn of the century upright piano that Ben Folds helped her find sits next to the entrance. Polaroids of her and singer Ashley Monroe are scattered on her mixing board, and a sign in the lounge offers a cocktail called Handsome Johnny, a signature vodka drink that the late John Prine named after himself.

Johnson works behind the boards at the premiere studios in town, but her

own home studio has the laid-back comfort of a friend’s house with enough reminders that Johnson is among the city’s top engineers.

But she was still surprised to get woken up with calls one recent morning to learn that not only was she nominated for engineer of the year by the Academy of Country Music, she was also the first female engineer to ever be nominated. The ACM Awards are airing on Sunday on CBS and the studio award winners will be announced at a later date.

“It feels like I’ve been seen by my community and that what I’ve been working for is paying off,” said Johnson.

Johnson has worked on hit records by Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Carlile and The

Highwomen. A friend and fan of Prine’s for years, she was in his home to record his last song, “I Remember Everything,” which earned Prine two posthumous Grammy Awards this year.

Her nomination comes as the music industry has been examining the gender gaps and barriers to women and people of color. The Recording Academy started an inclusion initiative in 2019 asking artists, labels and producers to commit to hiring more women for their projects.

Johnson has been working with and mentoring other new engineers who are just starting their careers. Her advice to those younger engineers is to treat each record they work on like an investment and commit to caring deeply about the music.