Producer turned songwriter Johnny Lewis melds the north-country sound of acoustic guitars with progressive Americana, unique lyrics and electronic ambiance, replanting the poetic verse into a timeless songwriting style.
He releases his self-titled, debut album on vinyl and digitally on Sept 23, 2014.
Leading to the release, Johnny Lewis will perform with his six piece ensemble at Mercury Lounge in New York City on Monday, September 8 at 7pm.
Johnny Lewis' musical background is not that of the ordinary Folk Artist. Stemming from Minneapolis, MN, Johnny moved to Colorado in 2008 to pursue electronic production for a number of touring acts including The Larva Ink, Lizzo, Bokonon and many more.
He became accepted into the festival community and opened extensively for national acts such as The Flaming Lips and EOTO, but after tirelessly working in the electronic world, Lewis came to terms with his obsession for acoustic music. This in turn, drove him away from production and into his passion - writing songs.
Johnny grew up listening to music from a world he didn't belong to. His uncles would listen to the crackling records of Charley Patton, Chet Baker, Johnny Hartman and Bob Dylan, which drew Johnny to the acoustic guitar at the age of twelve and played songs by legends all the way through high school.
After his stints in Colorado and Minneapolis, Johnny began slowly moving away from the electronically oriented acts he had formed and the scene he had engrained himself in and moved to New York City to start his music career over. He wrote dozens of songs and decided it was time to release his first solo record.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Johnny’s ode to his home state, “Minnesota” is a percussive acoustic ballad where his poetic verse exudes: "On window steeps the clouds roll deep to cover up a moon time / The sting waits in between the glass like a Kafka paradigm / And when lost babe visits vivid dreams bade each and every night / It may be time / To wake from that cold coma they call Minnesota."
The rest of Johnny Lewis is a gorgeous fusion of dream-folk, Americana and meticulously layered production, combining all spectrums of Lewis’ affections. This amalgamation is evident from the pedal-steel opener “Ancient No Name”, the fingerpicking boogie of “Uneasy Love” and the vibrato riffed “Symbol” to the AM radio anthem “Stuck on You” and the steel-country sway of album closer, “Little”.
The first track available from the album is the shuffle love-story, “Familiar Chime”, asserting:
“I wanna dance these avenues with you / Until the sun dips behind horizon lines / And we wake to a view / Of our entangled eyes engraved in time / And blue and four make two / And we fly blind to the song of our Familiar Chime.”
Hear it here:
Johnny Lewis will follow the NYC show in September with more dates in the fall. His self-titled debut is out Sept 23.
Acoustic Nation is written by Laura B. Whitmore, a music industry marketing veteran, music journalist and editor, who has contributed to Parade.com, Guitar World, and others. She has interviewed hundreds of musicians and hosts the She Rocks Podcast. As the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, she advocates for women in the music industry and produces the annual She Rocks Awards. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, making the world safe for guitar exploration everywhere! A guitarist and singer/songwriter, Laura is currently co-writing an album of pop songs that empower and energize girls.
