Eric Johnson shows multiple sides of his virtuosity on new singles, Sitting on Top of the World and Love Will Never Say Goodbye
The songs – one from each of his upcoming albums – show the Strat master's love of the blues and Motown, respectively
Last month, electric guitar maestro Eric Johnson announced that he would be releasing not one, but two new albums this summer.
In tandem with the announcement of the twin LPs – which are titled The Book of Making and Yesterday Meets Today – Johnson released one single from each LP, Soundtrack Life and Yesterday Meets Today.
Now, Johnson's followed those tunes up with one more single from each album.
The Book of Making's Love Will Never Say Goodbye is classic Johnson, an inspirational, up-tempo pop number with immaculately executed, lightning-fast lead breaks that are smooth as the song's classy hooks.
Yesterday Meets Today's Sitting On Top Of The World, meanwhile, shows Johnson's bluesy side. Nice 'n' steady, Johnson's take on the blues standard is a widescreen display of his always-immaculate phrasing.
"Sitting On Top Of The World is a classic blues number that I’ve always loved," the guitarist said in a statement.
"Howlin’ Wolf had a great version of it as well as Cream on their record Wheels Of Fire. I tried to do a slightly different version of it myself but still pay respect to the original intention."
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As for Love Will Never Say Goodbye, Johnson explains that it came from "a basic track that I had from years ago and decided to overdub guitars and background vocals and percussion on. It has a bit of a Motown feel to it which was a favorite era of music to me."
Both The Book of Making and Yesterday Meets Today feature nine tracks, and are set for a July 29 release via Blue Élan Records. You can check out their covers and respective track lists below.
To preorder the albums, visit Blue Élan.
Eric Johnson – The Book of Making:
- Soundtrack Life
- Floating Through This World
- Love Will Never Say Goodbye
- Bigger Than My Life
- Just To Be With You
- To Be Alive
- Another One Like You
- My Faith In You
- A Thousand Miles
Eric Johnson – Yesterday Meets Today:
- Move On Over
- Yesterday Meets Today
- It’s Just The Rain
- Maha
- Hold On To Love
- Sitting On Top Of The World
- Dorsey Takes A Day Off
- JVZ
- Until We Meet Again
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.