Born and raised in Austin, Texas — where he has been voted Best Electric Guitarist and Best Acoustic Guitarist multiple times as well as Musician of the Year in the annual Austin Music Awards.  Johnson’s versatility springs from his diverse musical tastes and influences. Trained in classical and coming of age with the classic pop and rock of the 1960s, his seminal guitar touchstones were Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Clapton’s work on the first album by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers led Johnson back to blues icons like the three Kings — B.B., Freddie and Albert — all of whom he was able to see live, along with many other musical greats, at Austin venues like the legendary Armadillo World Headquarters. Widely admired by his fellow guitarists, Johnson is an avid collaborator with other players. His 1996 G3 tour with fellow guitarists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai yielded a bestselling album and platinum DVD, G3: Live in Concert, and Johnson was also tapped by Eric Clapton to appear at the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival.

On this night the youthful looking and energetic Johnson was having a ball. It was obvious he was glad to be out of the studio and on stage letting things happen. The stripped down look just let the guitar do the talking. The three piece group was tight and the sound was a little loud but not overwhelming. HOB always is pushing the decimals just a tad bit. HMR would like to thank Eric Johnson and his publicity staff for being so gracious to HMR for this event and of course HOB staff is the shit.

Very few musical artists achieve a true signature style but Eric Johnson arguably comes as close to this echelon as any musician from the past quarter-century. The reason why is Johnson’s love for the music itself, the breadth of his tastes, and his focus on writing and playing songs rather than hot licks and riffs and six-string gymnastics and pyrotechnics. As Johnson readies his next studio album for a planned 2009 release, his musical goals continue to be breaking new artistic ground as a player, composer, performer and recording artist. We wish him all the luck and look forward to picking up the new CD and catching EJ on the forthcoming tour to support it. Until then, we will see you out supporting live music.