| Pinpointing
Michael Johnson on the musical scale of style is a difficult
chore. As a teenage guitar player, he took notes from seminal
rocker Chuck Berry and jazzman Charlie Byrd.
At age 21, he spent a year
in Barcelona, studying under classical guitarist Graciano Tarrago;
once he'd returned to the U.S., he signed up for a one-year
folk tour as a member of the Mitchell Trio, where his fellow
musicians included John Denver.
To complicate matters, when
he first made inroads in the record business, he did it in pop,
racking up hits with "Bluer Than Blue," "Almost Like Being in
Love," and "This Night Won't Last Forever." He hadn't yet covered
polka music, or country, but he tackled the latter idiom after
signing with RCA Records in the winter of 1985.
His pleasant intonation, relaxed
phrasing, and unusual pronunciations blend well with his usual
acoustic arrangements, although Johnson's never quite earned
the level of recognition his talents deserve.
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