When I woke up this morning, two thoughts rushed into focus. They were: “I’m so glad it’s finally Friday!”; and “I need to hear some Eric Johnson.” The latter also settled the major question of what would be today’s MotD.
The details were more difficult to nail down. While Johnson is rightly known first and foremost for his guitar chops, he’s also a good singer … so which did I want: an instrumental piece or a song1? Cueing up an album quickly answered that question.
Ahhhhhhhhhh. “Camel’s Night Out” hits the sweet combo spot of lovely shredding and crunchy riffs that I was craving. Tommy Taylor on drums and song composer Kyle Brock on bass bring the fire too.
The track is from Johnson’s third studio album, Venus Isle. According to Wikipedia, its release was delayed for years as Johnson kept scrapping completed tracks. Venus Isle didn’t sell nearly as well as its predecessor, 1990’s Ah Via Musicom, which has his sole Grammy award-winning song so far, “Cliffs of Dover.”
My brother and I saw Eric Johnson as the opener on Rush’s Roll the Bones tour; he was touring in support of Ah Via Musicom. Our seats were kind of high and stage right (Alex Lifeson’s side), which turned out to be good, because Johnson tended to stay on that side. I think that was my first exposure to his music, and I was enchanted. I bought the CD shortly after the concert, and when Venus Isle dropped, I bought it as soon as I could. Both were in heavy rotation at home and in my car for a few years.
I may like Venus Isle better overall, but it’s been so long since I’ve listened to both albums that I can’t say for sure. Poor me: I’ll just have to listen to both to try to decide. Discovering today that he’s still active, I foresee digging in to Eric Johnson’s other albums in my near future.
many (most?) people these days don’t use the word this precisely, but the definition specifies music that includes singing … and now you know why I named my ‘Stack “Music of the Day”
Have to admit to knowing nothing of this group, but like it. Have a brother with some nice guitars and equipment and loves to thrash. Me, I'm trying to get my volume up and fight the feedback (feedback can be good, but not acoustically).
Such a talent. Love EJ…🎸🎸🎸