b. 8 August 1944, Alamosa, Colorado, USA. With a taste catholic enough to embrace both Charlie Byrd and Chuck Berry, Johnson was taught rudimentary guitar by an older brother before spending a year in Barcelona studying flamenco with Graciano Tarrago. After returning to the USA, the 22-year-old toured with the Chad Mitchell Trio (with John Denver) before appearing in the off-Broadway production of Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris. His 1970 solo debut, released on Atco Records, was overseen by Peter Yarrow and Phil Ramone, but he had to wait for his commercial breakthrough until 1978 when ‘Bluer Than Blue’ reached number 12 in the US charts. It was followed by lesser entries with ‘Almost Like Being In Love’ and ‘This Night Won’t Last Forever’. Transferring from EMI-America to RCA Records, Johnson next addressed himself to the C&W field, beginning well with ‘I Love You By Heart’, a commercially successful duet with Sylvia. He was to top the country chart twice with singles from the movie Wings - ‘Give Me Wings’ (co-written by Rhonda Fleming) and Hugh Prestwick’s ‘The Moon Is Over My Shoulder’ (featuring a galvanizing acoustic guitar solo by Don Potter). Further hits with ‘Crying Shame’, Randy Vanwarmer’s ‘I Will Whisper Your Name’ and - another Prestwick opus - ‘That’s That’, established Johnson as a star of the genre by the 90s. However, illness and poor sales of his 1992 Atlantic Records album threatened his new-found status, and further albums for Vanguard Records, Intersound and American Originals failed to re-establish this talented singer and guitar player as a commercial force.
