He has mixed it up with his friends and guitarists Sonny Landreth and Jimmie Vaughan. The disc has a variation of rock, blues, jazz, pop and country. His distinctive musical gift can be seen in his album “Up Close” The album was released on his own Vortexan Music Label. He won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for Cliffs of Dover. Johnson’s platinum selling 1990 recording Ah Via Musicom produced the single Cliffs of Dover was critically acclaimed. His extraordinary musical talent earned him the name of “one of the most respected guitarists”. He is widely praised for his guitar skills by well-known guitarists such as Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, B.B. Although Johnson is best known for his solos, he is associated with other projects and appeared on Steve Morse’s Distant Star and John5’s The Washing Away of Wrong. Johnson’s popular songs are Cliffs of Dover (1990), Song for George (1990), Trademark (1991) and Manhattan (1996). His other albums are Perpetuum Mobile by Mariani (1970), Electromagnets by Electromagnets (1975), Live and Beyond by Alien Love Child (2000) and Electromagnets 2 By Electromagnets (2006). Johnson signed on with Cinema Records, an indie label distributed by Capitol Records, and in the mid ‘90s he was recording his album “Venus Isle”, while performing with the music group “ Alien Love Child” and playing shows every now and then. Anyway the album didn’t sell as much as they were expecting, and for this reason Warner Bros Records didn’t renew his contract when it expired. The article helped the launch of the album “Tones”, and one of his tracks, “Zap”, was nominated in 1987 for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Johnson popularity started growing, and in 1986 the magazine “Guitar Player” ran a cover about his history. In 1984 he finally got an important contract when he signed to Warner Bros Records. Johnson started working as a session guitarist, and he played with important singers like Cat Stevens, Carole King, and Christopher Cross. The trio played in Austin, and they also wrote an album in 1976/1978, “Seven Worlds” that wasn’t published until 1998 because of some contract disputes arisen at the time in which the album was recorded.
Even in this case, for the popularity and the cult born around Johnson, those two albums were later re-discovered, and published in compact disk format.Īfter the experience with the Electromagnets, Johnson joined Bill Maddox, a drummer, and Kyle Brock, a bassist. The group performed till 1977, they also released two albums, but it was finally dismantled because it didn’t reach any relevant popularity. He travelled abroad with his family, they temporarily moved to Africa, but Johnson want back to Austin in 1974, and shortly after that he joined a local fusion group, the “Electromagnets”. After graduating from high school, Johnson attended the University of Texas at Austin.