Attended Eric Johnson concert (guit*r player) in Spokane

Chad Michael · #1 09-30-2004, 11:36 PM

Venue: The Big Easy (a music venue here in lil' ol' Spokane with brilliant acoustics and mouth watering house PA)

Artist: Eric Johnson, as I recall had two top 40 instrumental hits, "Trademark" and "Cliffs of Dover"

If you love music, and EJ is coming to your area, do not miss this show. Eric has such wonderful, tasteful compositions completely devoid of ego... and so full of mature musicality. The show I attended last night was an acoustic guitar / piano / vocal show, not the electric ensemble. It's hard to find the words to convey Eric's ability to captivate the room and leave you stunned ....

He is my favorite guit*r player and I personally dig his singing voice. He also played several pieces on piano, his keyboard abilities remind me of Tori Amos. Tori is an underrated pianist whose musical complexity really hits those who 'get it', Eric on the piano is in a similar category.

Love music? EJ will let you love it even more.

Have a good weekend

.

Gard · #2 10-01-2004, 06:48 AM

Eric is amazing, he has incredible ability, but he always uses it in service of the music, and his composition sense is amazing.

A true musician, there are far too few of those.

JimK · #3 10-01-2004, 04:02 PM

Way back when(early '80s?)-
EJ was on the cover of Guitar Player mag; IIRC, the title was "Who is Eric Johnson & Why Is He On Our Cover"? At the time, EJ was probably the 'best unknown guitarist in the world'(or sumthin like that).
EJ was on Christopher Cross' debut album; IIRC, Johnson was, like, 17 at the time.

The Electromagnets' stuff is pretty cool. Zappa said they were like The Mahavishnu Orchestra with a sense of humour.

Davehenning · #4 10-01-2004, 04:18 PM

I have done a few shows with EJ. He is an amazing guitarist and more importantly, a good guy.

My jaw hit the floor during some of his solos. It was hard to concentrate on my own playing when I was being amazed every other bar.......

Thee · #5 10-01-2004, 05:47 PM

Argh!

God!

As soon as I leave...

Let's look at this, as soon as I leave WA, The Bad Plus, Mike Watt, and Eric Johnson come. And not to mention Margret Cho!

I'm sure it was an awesome show. Did you catch Wooten when he came to the big easy, bimp?

Chad Michael · #6 10-01-2004, 06:19 PM

I missed Vic

. Maybe next time.

FCM3 · #7 10-02-2004, 09:18 PM

I take it by your review that Eric played by himself? He usually tours w/ roscoe Beck on bass. As far as Eric songs go, his compositions are pretty complex, yet very listenable. What gets me w/ Eric -is his tone, its a chameleon and yet right each time.
I've seen Eric a few times and have been fortunate to have one of Eric students as our lead guitarist. Infact we play "trademark" and "Cliffs" as instrumental. Its pretty cool to see them play

Bard2dbone · #8 10-04-2004, 06:51 PM

I've never seen him with Roscoe on bass. He always recorded with Roscoe Beck and then toured with Kyle Brock, who is also awesome.

BY the way EJ has one of the best guitar tones in existence, When he gets his gear tuned in to make 'his sound' he calls it the "100 pound violin tone."

To our European TBer's, think 45 kg violin.

Gard · #9 10-04-2004, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bard2dbone

I've never seen him with Roscoe on bass. He always recorded with Roscoe Beck and then toured with Kyle Brock, who is also awesome.

BY the way EJ has one of the best guitar tones in existence, When he gets his gear tuned in to make 'his sound' he calls it the "100 pound violin tone."

To our European TBer's, think 45 kg violin.

I've been lucky enough to have seen Eric with three different players:

Chris Maresh
Kyle Brock
Roscoe Beck

They're each great, but man, Roscoe is scary good.....

Brooks · #10 10-05-2004, 04:36 AM

Eric is by far my fav guitar player. He is both a great player and a good composer, and everything he does always seems to be in the function of the music itself, not his ego or whatever. Would LOVE to hear him live... must be awesome!

troubledog · #11 09-01-2009, 10:05 PM

I was in Austin in the late 70s early 80s and saw Eric play many times. Actually met him once at a guitar show there. Eric is older than he looks and as anyone knows who has followed his career, he has paid his dues and his success was long in coming.

By the time he played on Christopher Cross debut album he was already a local legend, the Electromagnetic album was 5 years old, and he couldn't get a recording contract. I remember something about a problem with his manager. Anyway, Eric was already 26 or so when he guested on the CCross album. I think he was well into his 30's by the time Tones came out. I'm glad he finally made it big, but it was a long hard ride.

oldrocker · #12 09-02-2009, 10:14 AM

There is nice clip of EJ playing and singing Desert Rose on the 1st Clapton Crossroads DVD. I think it's from '05.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCRhlsILuQo

JTE · #13 09-02-2009, 10:41 AM

I beleive EJ's 54 or so. I recall from that first GP interview that he was born the same time I was. And he was one of only two guitarists up to that point who'd been in the magazine without major recording releases (the other was Roy Buchanan). That's because so many respected and well-known guitarists had been talking to GP about him for so many years. One person in that article, who'd know Johnson since he was a teenager, said his main instrument was piano.

One of my lessons had a sister who lived in Texas, and when Tom came back from a visit he brought me a casstte he'd recorded at a club in Austin. It was EJ live in a bar, playing most of "Tones" and bunch of other things too (some of which wound up on later albums). I was floored. Then I heard the acoustic stuff, including a wonderful rendition of Paul Simon's "April, Come She Will".

Amazing guitarist with a great sense of melody and a wide range of influences. I guess that's partly why I like him so much- he's not limited to a small pallet, and he uses the whole range of what guitars can do. But it's always musical instead of "looke at what I can do!!". Sure, it's flashy when he plays slide on a two bar phrase, drops the slide and plays with his fingers, then leans down and grabs the slide again. But it's in service to the music and if you weren't watching you'd still hear the music, not the flash.

He ranks up there with Jeff Beck, Tuck Andress, and Joe Pass for just making me go "Wow!!".

John

troubledog · #14 09-02-2009, 11:50 AM

JTE, yes, I remember hearing all those 'Tones' songs when they played live in Austin back in 1980, quite a few years before the record came out. Of course ZAP was one of our fav's. Our little band used to even play it. Our guitarist had one of the rare original copies of the Electromagnetics album. At that time the two most important influences for our little fusion circle in Austin were Eric Johnson and Jaco Pastorius (oh yeah, Pat Metheny too!).

fishtx · #15 09-04-2009, 12:55 PM

Just saw Eric last week here in Dallas at the HOB...another great show...got a chance to go backstage and say hello...I believe I heard him say he had just turned 55...

The first time I saw him was with the Electromagnets...they opened a show in Tulsa for Kiss in 1976...a one-off deal...the only show they did with Kiss...I spoke to both Eric and "Alien Love Child" drummer Bill Maddox (who was the drummer for Electromagnets) about that gig...