Oct 1st – Northern Lights Theater – Milwaukee, WI
Oct 2nd – Clowes Memorial Hall – Indianapolis, IN
Oct 3rd – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI
Oct 6st – Stiefel Theatre – Salina, KS
Oct 7th – Englert Theatre – Iowa City, IA
Oct 9th – Mayo Civic Center Theater – Rochester, MN
Oct 10th – Space – Evanston, IL
Oct 13th – Colonial Theatre – Phoenixville, PA
Oct 14th – Lebanon Opera House – Lebanon, NH
Oct 15th – Strathmore – North Bethesda, MD
Oct 16th – Westhampton Beach P.A.C. – Westhampton, NY
Oct 17th – The Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT

2011
Jan 14th – Spanos Theatre – San Luis Obispo, CA
Jan 15th – Norman P. Murray Center – Mission Viejo, CA
Jan 17th – Visalia Fox Theater – Visalia, CA
Jan 19th – Van Duzer Theater – Arcata, CA
Jan 20th – Laxson Auditorium – Chico, CA
Jan 21st – Napa Valley Opera House – Napa, CA

In this interview, Strat-master Eric Johnson discusses why his new album is more “alive” than his previous and the special guests who make appearances on it. He also walks us through the rig he used for Experience Hendrix and shares his favorite moments from the tour.

I hope they record some of these shows. I won’t be able to catch the shows in NYC, and I think this format would be really interesting for Johnson’s material. If any of you go, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts on the show.

“In the end, though, the finished product is what matters, and I just can’t lower my standards. I can’t go, ‘Oh well, I’m not in tune – whatever.’ That isn’t what turns me on. What turns me on is hearing a guitar with a great sound and played really, really great. That’s what gets me up in the morning.”

Johnson says he has about 12 songs completed for the album, which he expects to release soon. The album is being mixed by Andy Johns and is tentatively titled Up Close. Special guests on the album include Jimmie Vaughan, Jonny Lang, and Steve Miller.

(Thanks to GL reader Darren M. for the tip about the interview.)

In 2007, Eric Johnson participated in a concert called Love-In: A Musical Celebration, which was a celebration of the music of the ’60s. In addition to Johnson, the concert featured Buddy Miles of Jimi Hendrix and Electric Flag fame, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Jesse Colin Young of the Youngbloods, Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge, among others.

For his part of the show, Johnson played songs by Cream and Jimi Hendrix. The video below features Johnson playing Politician by Cream as well as Johnson discussing how he felt when hearing the music of the 60s:

“Few people understand that when the guy was 15, he was playing Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery stuff, and he was doing it right–that’s pretty cool! If the record that he made years ago, The Seven Worlds, had come out at the time it was ready, instead of being held back for the reason of dollars and pennies–someone besides Eric was holding out for too much money for a deal–he would have been as big as Jeff Beck. He would have been very much in the public eye for modern jazz, rock, and fusion. The guy deserves a lot more recognition than he’s ever gotten. Eric is an honest human being, and he cares about everything. Just listen to him and learn.”

I didn’t realize that Johnson’s first album was stalled for so long by management issues. However, it’s good to know that after those early struggles, Johnson finally started to get the recognition he deserved. Of course, now he’s very well known as one of the greatest guitarists playing today, but it’s interesting to read about him at a time when he wasn’t nearly as well known.

I always want to squeeze the optimum tone out of each note. Guitarists often say that your sound comes from your technique, your guitar or your rig. That’s true to a certain degree, but in my opinion, the finger you fret with and the string you use will also drastically affect your tone. I like all the notes in my lines to have a certain cohesiveness of texture. To that extent, I constantly work out my fingerings, using any and all permutations I can to play my lines. If necessary, I will skip around the strings in order for a passage to maintain tonal consistency; that’s why I might make some fingering choices that seem odd, illogical or simply more difficult to the average guitarist.

The article provides some insight into Johnson’s approach to fret fingering with some nice examples.

Here’s part 1:

And, here’s part 2: