Folky funky One-Take Jake
There is something endearing about a man who rocks Mary Poppins. The songs and performances that became the basis for Jacob Johnson’s most recent album, “One-Take Jake”, include his unique take on the Disney classic “Chim Chim Cheree” by the Sherman Brothers, as well as Johnson’s own award-winning original, “The Ferryboat Waltz.”
While Jacob Johnson’s songwriting has won awards and his guitar-playing has put him on stage with Tommy Emmanuel and Phil Keaggy, his ability as an entertainer is what has won fans throughout the southeast. He weaves delicate, dazzling melody lines with the occasional percussive thump on the strings, and his lyrics reveal a modestly bemused look at the world.
Johnson began playing when he was 10 years old, thanks primarily to his grandmother.
“She played with pickup bands back in the ’40s,” he says. “When country acts would tour, they would just book a band in whatever city they were playing in. Grandma played with Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow and a lot of people like that. She taught me the first three or four chords I ever learned.”
After that initial introduction, Johnson says he progressed rapidly.
“There was a period of a couple of years,” he says, “where I went from zero to 60. I started out listening to Johnny Cash and then got into the old rockabilly like Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent, then it was the blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton, and Hendrix. I guess by the time I was 18 or 19 I’d started getting into Phil Keaggy and Michael Hedges, who I consider the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar.
“Hedges was one of the first players who got into two-handed tapping, alternate tuning, that kind of stuff. At a certain point I decided to focus on the acoustic guitar because it seemed like this was the instrument that was going to give me my voice and allow me to develop my singing and songwriting.”
Since 2007, Jacob Johnson has traveled the country, honing his craft, and making friends and fans along the way.
And such was the case with Grammy-nominated Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel. Emmanuel put Jacob, as his opening act, on such notable stages as The Birchmere in Virginia, The State Theater in Maine, and The Newberry Opera House in South Carolina.
Music journal No Depression had this to say, “Jacob’s album ‘One-Take Jake’ is filled with crystalline, pyrotechnical guitar playing but he has infused his performance with personality. It runs right down his arms into his fingers, onto the strings — missing not a grain of warmth and meticulous guitar-spirit. The guitar is not just an instrument in the hands of Jacob Johnson — it’s his soul-mate."
Jacob Johnson will be visiting Rappahannock County this Saturday, Feb. 22, for an 8 p.m. performance at Little Washington Theatre on Gay Street.
He weaves delicate, dazzling melody lines with the occasional percussive thump on the strings, and his lyrics reveal a modestly bemused look at the world.