Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Best known for his electric guitar skills, Johnson is also a player of acoustic, lap steel, and resonator guitar, as well as a bassist, pianist, and vocalist. He plays many musical genres, including rock, blues, jazz fusion, soul, folk, new-age, classical, and country. Keyboard called him "one of the most respected guitarists on the planet" in 2006.

Eric Johnson was born on August 17th, 1954 in Austin, Texas. He was born into a musically inclined family. his mom was a pianist and Johnson and his three sisters studied piano, while his father was a whistling enthusiast who loved music. Johnson started learning the guitar at age 11 and rapidly progressed while listening to the musicians who would heavily influence his future style, including Mike Bloomfield, Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Ric Bailey, Wes Montgomery, Jerry Reed, Bob Dylan, and Django Reinhardt, among others. At the age of 15, he joined his first professional band, Mariani, a psychedelic rock group. In 1970, Johnson and the group recorded a demonstration, which had an extremely limited release. The recording became a prized collector's item years later.

After graduating from high school, Johnson briefly attended the University of Texas at Austin and traveled with his family to Africa. He eventually returned to Austin, and in 1974, joined a local fusion group called Electromagnets. The group toured and recorded regionally, but did not attract attention from major record labels and disbanded in 1977. The strength of Johnson's playing, however, attracted a small cult following to the group's early recordings, and decades later, their two albums were given wide release on compact disc.

Following the Electromagnets' demise, Johnson formed a touring trio, the Eric Johnson Group, with drummer Bill Maddox and bassist Kyle Brock. They played to audiences around Austin. From 1976–1978, Johnson recorded Seven Worlds, his debut album, at Odyssey Studios in Austin. Contract disputes followed, and Seven Worlds was not released until 1998 on Ark21 Records.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.