I played solo coffeehouse gigs for 10 years, and got tired of stirring my own cup, musically. Basically, I got sick of myself, the same old tunes, sounds and setlist I was playing. Other people loved it, and after 10 years, it left me yawning. Now with the onset of looping machines and effects, there are many more choices available to solo artists. Maybe my solo performing career will re-emerge with new fire.

In other solo realms, I have composed songs for jingles, commercials, movies, weddings, theme CD’s, childrens songs and more. I have composed hundreds of love songs, the sap and hopeless romantic that I am. My love songs rarely get heard because I am so busy performing upbeat blues/funk stuff in the band. A few close friends have been chiding me to make a solo CD of all my love songs, and I think it’s a great idea, so that will likely be next, after we mix and produce the album that my Dad and I did this last summer. It’s definitely in the cue.             Photo by Alejandro Andreatta

In the summer of 2002 I toured the Midwest with bassist Rob Gehl and recorded a live performance at Kraftbrau Brewery, Kalamazoo, MI. This intimate, live CD is available for purchase at the Store.

In addition to the blues, I have a great love for both Celtic and Bluegrass music. In college, I played in a bluegrass group called The East Johnson Trio. The instrumentation was me on guitar, Randy on fiddle, and Styx on standup bass. We performed a few Dave Grisman tunes, like EMD, and picked up some other classics like Miles Davis’ “All Blues”, Brubeck’s “Take 5”, "Tell Me Why" by Neil Young and more, all in our “BluesGrass” style. My favorite part of any East Johnson Trio gig was when we played “musical chairs.” We would all switch instruments, and pull off a sober, but drunken sounding version of "Kumbaya". Everyone laughed and loved it!

Later, I played in a Celtic quartet called “The Burns Unit” for several years. The instrumentation was two guitars (6-string and 12-string), harp, and three-part harmony vocals. Now I still perform occasionally with harper Patricia Rushton (www.patriciarushton.com) and contributed my guitar work to tracks on her CD “Open the Door Softly”. I also have been dabbling in a female acoustic trio with powerful three-part harmonies ("Moxy").