Guitarist Eric Johnson goes acoustic for ‘performance oriented’ record

The album title should be a tip off. It’s called simply “EJ,” the initials of the Grammy winning guitarist, studio perfectionist, multi-genre composer and vocalist who made it: Eric Johnson.

Two letters, an efficient but purposeful representation of an artist — that’s what we’re provided. Give a listen to the recording and what you hear is essentially the same. Instead of the intricately crafted and keenly produced electric music that has made Johnson part of a long line of heralded Texas guitar-slingers, we have music made primarily with acoustic guitar, voice and, perhaps most surprisingly, piano. Yet it sounds as complete and inventive as any record Johnson has made. Longtime fans may consider it a surprise. Johnson considers the project long overdue.

“Actually, I think I should have done something like this a lot earlier,” Johnson said. “I was going to do an acoustic record years ago but got sidetracked by a bunch of electric projects, so I put it on the back burner. All of a sudden, it’s something like seven years later. I think now is an OK time, but I wish I had made at least one record like this years ago.”

An Austin native, Johnson’s music has long differed from many of the guitar giants to emerge from Lone Star country during the 1970s and ’80s. Less overtly blues-rooted, he began making noise, literally and figuratively, with a fusion band, The Electromagnets. By 1986, his second album, “Tones,” solidified a sound blending psychedelia, jazz undercurrents, rockish foundations and vocals that often seemed meditative. But there were also detours through country, soul and, yes, blues. “Cliffs of Dover,” which mixed several of those styles, won Johnson a Grammy in 1991 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

While there have been nods to acoustic music on past albums, it was “EJ” that allowed Johnson to focus on it exclusively. Similarly, his current tour, which brings him to the “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour” Monday, departs from his usual electric combo performances for solo acoustic music.

“I wanted to record stuff that was more performance oriented,” Johnson said. “So much of this record occurred live in the studio. Some people are still going, ‘Well, what’s this?’ They’re wondering why I’m not playing electric guitar, but I think this is a good step for me.

“Playing solo, though, is a totally different discipline. I’m not as used to it as I am playing with a band, so it’s a little bit of a challenge. I’m trying to learn to play these songs as well as I can live, which is a lesson in itself. It’s a little more demanding when you’re by yourself, where you have to try to nail everything. I’m getting there, though, slowly but surely.”

While some of the sensibilities within the repertoire of “EJ” are a natural fit, like a quick picking, harmonically altered version of the Simon & Garfunkel classic “Mrs. Robinson” and the album closing original “Song for Irene” (both played as instrumentals), Johnson pulls from sources both unexpected (a giddy, swing-savvy take on Les Paul and Mary Ford’s “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise”) and electric. From the latter world came Jimi Hendrix’s “One Rainy Wish,” which is reworked for piano, acoustic guitar and a light, limber rhythm section without losing any of the psychedelic fancy from the original 1967 version.

“There was some fooling around with different songs that I like. That was one that I thought kind of worked out, that I got a good performance on. But Hendrix’s music has such great songwriting that you can interpret it different ways and it can still work. I thought it intrinsically had this swaying, jazz feel to it. He’s playing these really full chords and doing this kind of swing thing, so it kind lent itself to maybe a different feel.”

Johnson is so taken with the acoustic adventures of “EJ” that he is already making plans to record a sequel. Mostly though, he sees the album as an additional means of opportunity and expression awarded to him by a four decade-long career.

“I find myself having more realizations of what ways I can present my music that can make it more impactful, more meaningful. So that’s what I’m trying to do. We just want to leave the door open for things to happen and try not to get in the way of ourselves.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Guitarist Eric Johnson goes acoustic for ‘performance oriented’ record."