Eric Johnson

The guitar has been very good to Eric Johnson, earning him international renown as a player, composer, recording artist and live entertainer as well as an ever-growing audience of admirers. And Eric Johnson has been very good to the guitar, spotlighting its myriad melodic, sonic and lyrical splendors, paying homage to its heroes and innovators, collaborating and playing with many of its finest contemporary talents, and fostering its continuing vibrancy as a primarily instrumental genre in popular music. “He's an extraordinary guitar player accessible to ordinary music fans,” notes the Memphis Commercial Appeal. That’s because Eric Johnson plays music and not just the guitar. He is also a gifted player of the piano (his first instrument) as well as songwriter, singer and song interpreter. Or more succinctly, Eric Johnson is a diverse, versatile and fully realized musical creator who plays guitar like no one else. The pivotal event in Johnson's rise to becoming, as Guitar Player says, “one of the most respected guitarists on the planet," was his million-selling, now-classic 1990 album Ah Via Musicom (which loosely translates as "communicating through music"). It was his second release, following Tones, his 1986 major label debut. Musicom yielded three Top 10 singles – "Cliffs of Dover," which has become Johnson's signature song and won a Best Rock Instrumental Grammy, and "Trademark" and "Righteous." It made him the first artist to ever score three Top 10 instrumentals. Now, 28 years later, he revisits that landmark recording with a 2018 tour on which he will play the album – hailed as a "masterwork" in Amazon.com's review – in its entirety. The Austin, Texas-based Johnson also closes out 2017 with a new album, Collage, that combines five new original songs with five covers that reflect both his inspirations and range: An acoustic version of Jimi Hendrix's "One Rainy Wish," The Beatles classic "We Can Work It Out" in a Caribbean groove, B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby," the surf rock classic "Pipeline" and Stevie Wonder's 1966 #3 pop hit "Uptight (Everything's Alright)." The years prior to Ah Via Musicom and since are rich with accomplishments. Over the now five studio albums that have followed it – Venus Isle (1996), Bloom (2005), 2010's Up Close (and its revised European version Up Close – Another Look, now being issued in the US), EJ (2016) and the latest – Eric has broadened and enriched his rock guitar palette and further delved into his love for blues, jazz and country. He's earned six Grammy nominations, has topped or been listed high in countless greatest guitarist lists in music publications, and been featured on the cover of most every guitar magazine, many more than once. Johnson released an album in 2014 with jazz guitarist Mike Stern, Eclectic, that also landed him on the cover of Downbeat. His catalog further includes a collection of outtakes, demos and live treats, Souvenir (2002). And in 1998 his never-before-issued very first album recording from some 20 years before, Seven Worlds, was finally released by its producer (All Music Guide hailed as a "classy false start to a great career"). As an ardent live performer who regularly tours, "Few rock guitarists can take an audience on an unforgettable journey like Eric Johnson can," observes Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles. His primary live performance configuration is as a trio, most often with some of Austin's top players, including drummer Tommy Taylor and bassist Kyle Brock, who toured with him following Ah Via Musicom's success and return for the 2018 outing. He's also done acoustic tours both solo and as a trio with noted players Peppino D'Agostino and Andy McKee, and electric guitar tours with his hero B.B. King and pal and peer Sonny Landreth. His concert performances have been captured on a number of releases. Europe Live (2014) "serves as a fine introduction to this stunning musician," says All Music, as also do the his two Live From Austin TX CDs plus a DVD from his "Austin City Limits" performances and Anaheim Live (2008). Eric's side project Alien Love Child as well released an in-concert disc, Live and Beyond, in 2000. His 1996 tour with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani hit stores the following year as G3: Live in Concert. Johnson is an avid admirer of fellow guitarists past and present, and has recorded and/or performed with such other notables as Chet Atkins, B.B. King, James Burton, Jerry Reed, Steve Miller, John McLaughlin, Jimmie Vaughan, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Dweezil Zappa, Adrian Legg, John Petrucci and others. He has paid homage in song to such players as Jerry Reed (“Tribute to Jerry Reed” on Bloom), fellow Texan Stevie Ray Vaughan (the Grammynominated track “SRV”) and Wes Montgomery (who Johnson saluted in his Ah Via Musicom song “East Wes”). He has to date appeared on eight Experience Hendrix tours paying homage to one of his seminal guitar icons. Eric's artistic journey began in his teens in the Austin clubs, not long after joining the psychedelic rock band Mariani and later touring with the jazz-rock fusion group The Electromagnets. Eric's burgeoning reputation and touts from both Prince and Christopher Cross helped win him a deal with Reprise Records in the mid 1980s. The album that resulted, Tones, failed to chart. But it did earn him his first Grammy nomination for the song "Zap" and landed him on the front of Guitar Player magazine with the cutline: "Who is Eric Johnson & why is he on our cover?" Once Ah Via Musicom hit, the Los Angeles Times noted how he had already "been compared with rock's immortals." But Eric himself modestly demurs. "I don't think I'm a rock god. I just keep playing. It's fun, and I'm glad people enjoy it."

The Outlaws

Ana Popovic and Coco Montoya

COCO MONTOYA WRITING ON THE WALL Bio written by Marc Lipkin   "One of the most prodigious and gifted electric bluesmen on the planet...a deeply soulful singer and incendiary guitarist [with] a seemingly endless penchant for invention." –AllMusic   "Smoking songs and heavy hitting guitar full of fire and passion...Montoya’s rough-edged voice is filled with feeling. Bluesy, powerful and unpredictable...[It]really gets the blood flowing." –Blues Music Magazine "Montoya is a show-stopper...heartfelt singing and merciless guitar with a wicked icy burn. He is one of the truly gifted blues artists of his generation." –Living Blues   “’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ That’s what Albert Collins taught me,” says the award-winning guitar virtuoso and soul-deep singer Coco Montoya. The self-taught, left-handed Montoya mastered his craft under Collins’ tutelage. Incorporating lessons learned from his mentors, the iconic Collins (for whom he originally drummed), and UK legend John Mayall, Montoya puts his own stamp onto every song he performs. Since his first solo album in 1995 (which won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist), Montoya’s endlessly inventive guitar work and passionate, hard-hitting vocals have kept him at the top of the blues world. With his new Alligator Records album, Writing On The Wall(his sixth for the label), Montoya delivers what he is already calling one of the best records he’s ever made. For the very first time on Alligator, he decided to bring his road-tested band—noted keyboardist and songwriter Jeff Paris (Keb’ Mo’, Bill Withers), bassist Nathan Brown, and drummer Rena Beavers—into the studio with him. Between the camaraderie of the long-time bandmates and the sheer talent of all involved, the results have left Coco, in his words, “over the moon.”     Produced by Grammy Award-winner Tony Braunagel (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and co-produced by Jeff Paris, Writing On The Wall is a tour-de-force of memorable, hook-filled songs, sung with passion and fueled by equally memorable, top shelf musicianship. The 13 tracks include five written or co-written by Montoya. The set opens with a signature, career-defining performance of the soul-baring I Was Wrong, written for Coco by songwriter Dave Steen. From the blistering Save It For The Next Fool to the enjoy now/pay later philosophy of Jeff Paris’ (I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It to the riveting reinvention of Lonnie Mack’s Stop, Montoya delivers each song with heart-pounding emotion. Special guest Lee Roy Parnell adds his well-seasoned slide guitar to the smoldering A Chip And A Chair. And Coco’s friend, guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of late Alligator star Lonnie Brooks), joins in for some good-natured fun on the droll Baby, You’re A Drag and adds his blistering playing to the searing cover of Bobby Bland’s You Got Me.     “I am so proud of this one,” Montoya says of Writing On The Wall. “We recorded in Jeff Paris’ studio and everything just gelled together. And the band inspired me; they all gave extra effort at every turn. Jeff, Nathan and Rena played so great, they ended up making me play even harder. They made me sound better than I am!”     Henry “Coco” Montoya was born in Santa Monica, California, on October 2, 1951, and raised in a working-class family. Growing up, Coco immersed himself in his parents’ record collection. He listened to big band jazz, salsa, doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. His first love was drums; he acquired a kit at age 11. He got a guitar two years later. “I’m sure the Beatles had something to do with this,” Montoya recalls. “I wanted to make notes as well as beats.” But guitar was his secondary instrument. Montoya turned his love of drumming into his profession, playing in a number of area rock bands while still in his teens and becoming an in-demand drummer.     In 1969, Montoya saw Albert King opening a Creedence Clearwater Revival/Iron Butterfly concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was transformed. “After King got done playing,” says Montoya, “my life was changed. When he played, the music went right into my soul. It grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever affected me to this level. He showed me what music and playing the blues were all about. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”     The next chapter of Montoya’s story was kick-started by a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with legendary bluesman Albert Collins. Montoya says, “Albert was coming through Los Angeles and needed to borrow my drum set, which I left at the club where he was going to be playing. I went down to see his show that night and it just tore my head off. The thing that I had seen and felt with Albert King came pouring back on me when I saw Albert Collins.”     A short time later, Collins hired Montoya as his band’s drummer. With Albert mentoring Coco on the guitar during the band’s downtime, Coco soon became Collins’ second guitarist. “We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a father to me,” says Coco, who often slept at Collins’ home. When Collins declared Montoya his “son,” it was the highest praise and affection he could offer. In return, Montoya learned everything he could from the legendary Master of the Telecaster.     Needing a more regular paycheck, Montoya left Collins’ band after two years and took a job tending bar, jamming on weekends at Los Angeles clubs. One day, legendary British musician John Mayall heard Coco playing Otis Rush’s All Your Love (I Miss Loving)onstage. Soon after, Mayall called on Montoya to join his famous Bluesbreakers. Filling the shoes of previous Bluesbreaker guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor would not be easy, but Montoya knew he could not pass up the opportunity to play with another legend. For the next ten years he toured the world and recorded with Mayall on seven albums, soaking up the experience of life on the road and in the recording studio.     Montoya’s recorded debut as a bandleader came with 1995’s Gotta Mind To Travel(originally on Silvertone Records in England and later issued in the USA on Blind Pig Records). The album became an instant fan favorite. Blues enthusiasts, radio programmers and critics sent praise from all corners. The album immediately made it clear that Montoya ranked among the best players on the contemporary scene. Two more Blind Pig albums followed, and Coco was well on his way.     In 2000, Montoya’s Alligator debut, Suspicion, quickly became the best-selling album of his career, earning regular radio airplay on over 120 stations nationwide. Montoya’s fan base exploded. After two more highly successful and massively popular Alligator releases—2002’s Can’t Look Back and 2007’s Dirty Deal—Montoya signed with Ruf Records, cutting both a live and a studio album. Returning to Alligator with 2017’s Hard Truth and 2019’s Coming In Hot, the guitar master continued to blaze his trail. “Montoya unleashes one career-topping performance after another,” declared the UK’s Blues Matters.     Still an indefatigable road warrior, Montoya continues to tour virtually nonstop, bringing audiences to their feet from New York to New Orleans to Chicago to San Francisco. Across the globe, he’s performed in countries including Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Canada.     Now, with the dynamic Writing On The Wall and a tour calendar busting at the seams, Coco Montoya is as excited as he’s ever been to perform the new songs live with his burning-hot band. Montoya’s well-earned reputation as an eye-popping live performer precedes him. Vintage Guitar states, “Coco keeps getting better and better. He plays with fire and passion rarely seen in this day and age.” Billboard declares, “In a world of blues guitar pretenders, Coco Montoya is the real McCoy. He exudes power and authenticity. Be prepared to get scorched by the real thing.”   Alligator Records, LLC P.O. Box 60234, Chicago, IL 60660 (773) 973-7736 publicity@allig.com  

Sierra Hull and John Craigie

Much like community, music nourishes us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It also invites us to come together under the same roof and in a shared moment. In similar fashion, John Craigie rallies a closeness around music anchored by his expressive and stirring songcraft, emotionally charged vocals, lively soundscapes, and uncontainable spirit. The Portland, OR-based singer, songwriter, and producer invites everyone into this space on his 2024 full-length album, Pagan Church. Following tens of millions of streams, sold out shows everywhere, and praise from Rolling Stone and more, he continues to captivate. “The music is always evolving and devolving with each new record,” he observes. “With my last album Mermaid Salt, I really wanted to explore the sound of isolation and solitude as everyone was heading inside. With this record, I wanted to record the sound of everyone coming back out.” In order to capture that, he didn’t go about it alone… Instead, he joined forces with some local friends. At the time, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings booked a slew of outdoor gigs in Portland and they invited Craigie to sit in for a handful of shows. The musicians instinctively identified an unspoken, yet seamless chemistry with each other. Joined by three of the five members, Craigie cut “Laurie Rolled Me a J” and kickstarted the process. With the full band in tow, they hunkered down in an old schoolhouse TK & The Holy Know-Nothings had converted into a de facto headquarters and studio, and recorded the eleven tracks on Pagan Church.

Dirty Deeds

Clam Bake (18+ Event)

Melvin Seals and JGB

Shaun Cassidy

Shaun Cassidy is an American writer, producer, actor and singer. After originally making his name as a performer, Cassidy went on to create, write, and produce a number of critically acclaimed television series including AMERICAN GOTHIC (produced with Sam Raimi), ROAR (starring Heath Ledger), COLD CASE, COVER ME, THE AGENCY, INVASION, and EMERALD CITY. Cassidy most recently spent five years as executive producer and writer for the hit NBC/NETFLIX series NEW AMSTERDAM. The son of Tony award winning actor Jack Cassidy and Academy award winner Shirley Jones (and half-brother of the late singer/actor David Cassidy), Shaun grew up in Los Angeles and New York City. While still in high school, he signed a contract with Warner Brothers records. This led to three multi-platinum albums and numerous top ten hits including the number #1 DA DOO RON RON, THAT'S ROCK N' ROLL, HEY DEANIE, and DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC. Cassidy received a Grammy nomination for his efforts and performed at every major arena in the country including Houston’s Astrodome and New York’s Madison Square Garden. Almost concurrently, he starred in the ABC television series THE HARDY BOYS MYSTERIES. Later, while appearing for over a year on Broadway in the hit musical BLOOD BROTHERS, Shaun wrote his first television pilot, AMERICAN GOTHIC. When the show debuted, The New York Times called it “The most original new show of the season.” From 2020-2024, Cassidy took his self-penned music and storytelling show, THE MAGIC OF A MIDNIGHT SKY, to the stage, playing to SRO crowds nationwide and selling out five consecutive nights at New York's Fifty-Four below. The critic from Broadway World noted: "We haven't seen this man, this entertainer, in live concert for four decades, and we want to. We never stopped wanting to. So, we all went. And the voice is still there. The voice is still powerful, still full of emotion, texture, color, and technique. Not one moment of the "The Magic of a Midnight Sky" should be changed. This show is a dream. Shaun Cassidy, welcome home. We missed you and are so happy to have you back." Shaun makes his home in the wine country of Santa Barbara with his wife, Tracey, their four children, and more animals than he can count. In collaboration with No Kid Hungry, their family produces a collection of fine wines, MY FIRST CRUSH, which donates money to feed hungry children nationwide. Shaun is excited to be launching his next live music and storytelling tour, THE ROAD TO US, in the fall of 2025

The Man in Black - A Tribute to Johnny Cash