Later that year while opening and managing a natural foods cooperative in Boston, he taught himself guitar and started writing music. He then traveled throughout North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia for the next ten years working for an organization that taught self-awareness.

In 1993 he built a small music studio in the basement of his home, and began writing songs more seriously and with greater passion. He recorded his first CD, Ship of Dreams in 1998, and has just completed his second CD, slippin' through the shadows.

“I write songs that mean something to me, hopefully are comprehensible to the listener, and that leave as much as possible to the imagination,” Johnson said recently. “In writing my first album, I was trying to get things out that I had been carrying for many years, and to make it interesting to the listener.

“Writing slippin’ through the shadows was a great experience for me”, says Johnson. “I was determined to be more involved in every detail of the production of the project and that really happened. The songs evolved beautifully, growing in a more full expression of what I intended when they were first written. A lot of credit for that goes to Tony Juliano, my producer.

“By the end of the project I started to realize that the title track really captured what I’d been experiencing for the past few years: That life is richly complex, and that it often encompasses experiences of deep fulfillment and utter disappointment at the same time. Seeing things as they are is sometimes quite difficult while in the midst of a personal growth experience. There’s a lot of gray, a lot of shadows and the trick for me is to get through the shadows enough to see what is really happening, what the truth really is.”

Ship of Dreams
His first independently released CD, Ship of Dreams, was written over a five-year period and recorded from January to July 1998, and contains 10 songs that blend rock & roll, country and blues. Laid back vocals, smooth harmonies, soaring violin and guitar solos, driven by a tight rhythm section define the sound of this CD.

slippin' through the shadows
This collection of 10 new songs shows Johnson’s evolving maturity as a songwriter. From the opening seductive cut, “Stoned out in Love” to the closing nod to the Doors, a ten-minute plus anthem, “Sweet Water”, Johnson delivers a variety of smoothly produced tunes. Latin laced love songs, back porch swamp blues, piano ballads, and straight ahead rock are sung with introspective lyrics. Congas, harp, shakers, flute, soprano and tenor sax, and tasteful guitar work are found in just the right places.

Plays
Taylor, Fender, and Carvin guitars