Eric Johnson

[Stevepage]

I managed to see Eric Johnson at the Raddison Hotel in Guildford thursday night. Andertons were hosting a master class so we managed to get a nice personal kind of show (as his UK tour dates are sold out).

I've been a huge EJ fan for years. Flawless technique, amazing sense of melody and harmony and just all round fantastic player.

What I found to be the most amazing thing out of the whole show was that Eric really isn't super human. He's just like the rest of us. He struggles with certain techniques, he's sometimes not confident enough to try something different and makes mistakes like the rest of us.

Overall I found a whole new respect for him. On top of that his clean tone was amazing but unfortunately his distorted tone wasn't that great. I believe he was borrowing an amp he hadn't used before so it was sounding pretty muffled and undefined.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCRhlsILuQo

[lulusg]

True...!!!!

[Lezard]

He must've used the wrong batteries in his OD. :lol:

[Frank]

That's a shame, I like Eric Johnson's playing best when he's living in that zone on the edge of overdrive where he seems to control the amount of distortion just with pick dynamics. Like all truly great players he's found his own "voice" on the guitar which makes him instantly recognisable. I'd be disappointed if I saw him on a night when he was robbed of that by unfamiliar equipment.

[Philly Q]

I was a massive Eric Johnson fan for a while, saw him at the Marquee in the Ah Via Musicom days.

I lost patience with the ridiculous length of time he took to record albums, and was disappointed with how perfect and sanitised they ended up sounding.

But I hear he's become a bit more relaxed nowadays, I really should check out his more recent work.

[Frank]

Ritchie Blackmore likes his guitar playing - and he's not exactly famous for heaping praise on other guitar players.

[Ian Price]

I lost patience with the ridiculous length of time he took to record albums

Perhaps he was searching for the perfect battery?

How long did he generally take? I know next to nothing about him - other than Cliffs of Dover.

[Philly Q]

How long did he generally take? I know next to nothing about him - other than Cliffs of Dover.

Not that long really, by Axl Rose standards.... but it was a good 4 or 5 years between albums , in the days before it became the norm to take that long. 

I'm pretty sure Guitar Player interviewed him more than once between the Ah Via Musicom and Venus Isle albums, talking about things he was working on which never even made the latter album (which also changed title more than once).  Which would have been fine if Venus Isle was worth the wait, but I found most of it extremely bland.

I always compare Eric Johnson with Robben Ford, who (to me at least) is a bit like Johnson in the sense that he's a slick, sophisticated blues player with some jazz and rock influences.  Ford releases loads of albums and doesn't seem at all "precious" about spending years in the studio perfecting everything - but the results are still great.  Johnson (IMO) should have the same attitude.   

[Telerocker]

I would put Carl Verheyen in that row too. What I like about him that he is a guitar-straight-in-amp-player, he doesn't use many effects. Less polished then EJ, who's a great player as well. I'm just not to keen on his drive sound.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, Carl Verheyen is another "sophisticated" player who doesn't seem to waste too much time mucking about!

To be fair to Eric Johnson, he's done loads of session work and guest appearances for other artists, and I'm sure he doesn't turn up to those fussing about equipment (and that hoary old cliché about different brands of batteries).  I guess the perfectionism comes to the fore on his solo work.