TICKETS/COVER: Cover starts at 7:00 pm. Tickets can be bought for $5 online or $10 at the door. Arriving prior to 7:00 pm will waive cover fee.
An emerging star with all the momentum of a freight train, Johnson’s been pulling double duty his entire self-made career, chasing dreams while working full time as a railroad technician by day. But after the organic success of his hit single, “Front Seat,” a new track lies ahead.
That tenderhearted good-guy anthem has racked up more than 55 million streams so far, and in 2019, landed on both the Mediabase/Country Aircheck and Billboard Country Airplay charts – making him one of the only independent artists in more than five years to reach the Top 40. Along with a self-titled EP which debuted in the Top 10 of iTunes’ Country Album Chart – also without the help of a record label – it’s led to a new project filled with new possibilities.
Now signed with Mountain Road Records/Verge Records and pairing his Nashville-outsider mentality with Music City’s best resources, Johnson’s second EP, LOVE, DRUNK OR LONELY, finds him embracing the truth in those numbers: That he’s on a one-way trip toward breakout success. And for an artist so closely tied to his fans and the lifestyle they share, he’s not looking to change too much.
An Ohio native who started singing in church, Johnson thinks of himself as a family man first – and as an avid outdoorsman, he was brought up just like his audience. His deep love of country is paired with a passion for soul-singing R&B, high energy modern pop and the thrill of live performance, something he first discovered in choir but soon took far beyond.
Many weekends, Johnson now travels to and from Nashville for songwriting sessions and acoustic gigs, or takes his full band out on the road for coast-to-coast shows. The crowds have gotten bigger as his self-released songs connect on streaming platforms and beyond. Yet all along, he’s never once missed a day of work.
“It’s tough sometimes, and a lot of my friends who work in music tell me they don’t know how I do it, but I feel like it’s never been different,” he says. “There have been moments ever since my teens telling me this is something I really want to do. I really love that interaction between fans and artist.”
Produced by Mark Liggett and Jerry Lane, six fresh tracks were chosen from Nashville’s finest writers (including longtime creative partner, Joe Jordan), as the emerging star mixed his tried-and-true with something new. Country perspectives form the core, with Johnson exploring how to live, love and have fun in timeless terms. But he’s also embracing the soul of his worship-leading background, the funky strut of his R&B favorites and the undeniable intensity of modern pop. It ends up placing Johnson right in the heart of the new-country moment, while remaining tied to his raucous live shows.
“It’s just about continuation and growing, spreading the web a little farther,” he explains. “We wanted to get a little outside of what we did last time…. But man, these songs are really perfect for the way I perform.”
Tracks like the chest-thumping weekend rocker “Country Up” showcase Johnson’s euphoric live style – and also his connection to the country life. “There’s just so much in that song that I do all the time with my buddies,” he says of the fiddle-laced anthem. “The only line we changed was switching out Bud Light – it had to be Busch Light for me!”