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<\/p>\nGospel, soul, folk, blues, funk, show tunes and more: those are just some of the styles in which Asheville native Datrian Johnson is immersed. The singer\u2019s body of work \u2013 live and on recordings \u2013 spans those genres and beyond. He\u2019s a star at home, and a first-call vocalist for some of music\u2019s most accomplished artists. On the eve of his debut album under his own name, Johnson is the opening act on a run of dates included on the \u201cTa Ta for Now\u201d farewell tour of another act beloved in Asheville: The New Mastersounds. Johnson opened for the NMS at Asheville Music Hall on November 11.<\/p>\n
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Locally, Datrian Johnson is known as an expressive and authentic vocalist, and a key member of a number of regionally acts including The Fritz, Free Radio and more. With his own band The Family Tree, Johnson has opened locally for big names like Eric Gales. But those accomplishments only scratch the surface of Johnson\u2019s artistry.<\/p>\n
As Johnson prepares to break out nationally under his own name, he\u2019s sharing a bill with one of his favorite bands as they bow out of public performance. \u201cI\u2019ve been going to see them for years,\u201d he says. When he told friends that he was opening for the New Mastersounds on four dates, \u201cthey were like, \u2018No flippin\u2019 way!\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Johnson got his start in the gospel idiom. \u201cI was on Bobby Jones Gospel<\/i> when I was 12,\u201d he recalls. That long-running program on the BET Network \u2013 hosted by \u201cthe Ed Sullivan of gospel music\u201d \u2013 served as a launching pad. \u201cI started touring with [gospel group] Fred Hammond and Men of Standard,\u201d he says. But even then, Johnson\u2019s musical interests extended well beyond sacred music. \u201cI was really into musicals like Les Miserables<\/i>, Rent<\/i> and Bye Bye Birdie<\/i>,\u201d he explains. \u201cI realized, \u2018I want to be on Broadway!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson went on to attend ETSU, earning a degree in vocal performance. He was determined that Broadway would be his next stop. But first, he returned home to Asheville. \u201cI came home, and I got shot,\u201d he says. Endeavoring to push a teen \u2013 the intended target \u2013 out of the line of fire, he says that he took three bullets from an AK-47. \u201cThat slowed me down a lot.\u201d The death of his brother soon thereafter was yet another blow. \u201cBut music is what carried me through,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n
A prominent spot performing at the Los Angeles premiere of the Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace<\/i> brought Johnson\u2019s talents to a wider audience. \u201cThat\u2019s where I met John Medeski,\u201d he says. After \u201cgetting kicked off\u201d The Voice<\/i> \u2013 a near miss with fame he tartly characterizes as \u201ca blessing in disguise\u201d \u2013 Johnson joined Medeski\u2019s new soul project, Saint Disruption. \u201cWe did a few albums together; John really took me under his wing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Other major projects followed, including tours with Luther Dickinson\u2019s North Mississippi All Stars. \u201cIn fact,\u201d Johnson says, \u201cLuther and I just released an album.\u201d Dead Blues<\/i> is a re-imagining of traditional folk and blues songs that found their way into the Grateful Dead\u2019s playlists.<\/p>\n
In some ways, all of Johnson\u2019s previous endeavors \u2013 the local bands, Saint Disruption, Dead Blues<\/i>, work with Warren Haynes and more \u2013 have all been leading up to Datrian Johnson\u2019s upcoming solo record. Earlier this year, Johnson signed a management contract with Eddie Roberts \u2013 guitarist in the New Mastersounds \u2013 and began work on The Medicine Cabinet<\/i>, an all-original collection of songs set for release next March on Roberts\u2019 Color Red label.<\/p>\n
Johnson first met Roberts in 2023 when both men were part of a one-off ensemble that John Medeski assembled to headline the Bajaja Music Fest. \u201cI was like, \u2018Yo, huge fan; you\u2019re so awesome!\u2019 He was like, \u2018Nice to meet you, too.\u201d Johnson likens Roberts\u2019 guitar style to what The Joy of Painting<\/i>\u2019s Bob Ross did with paint. \u201cHe\u2019s gonna put a pretty little butterfly over here,\u201d he says with a laugh, amazed that three years later he\u2019s working closely with Roberts.<\/p>\n
For the album, Johnson says he wrote letters to himself, and made songs out of those. Each track is a chronicle of a healing experience. \u201cEvery song has an \u2018Rx number,\u2019\u201d Johnson explains. \u201cIt\u2019ll tell you what I was going through at that time, and what healed for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sessions for The Medicine Cabinet<\/i> took place at Echo Mountain Studios with Galactic bassist Rob Mercurio producing. \u201cEddie came to town a few weeks ago,\u201d Johnson recalls. \u201cWe rented [the studio] for a day; we didn\u2019t have anything prepared, but we left with five new songs recorded.\u201d A succession of five singles will be released well ahead of the album\u2019s street date. The first of those, \u201cMe and Myself\u201d debuted on October 24.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s album features fellow Asheville-based players Dwayne Simpson, Isaac Hayden, Nik Hope, Josh Blake and others. The album also showcases musical heavyweights from beyond Asheville; Johnson mentions Medeski, Roberts, Dickinson, Vernon Reid, Terrence Higgins and more. \u201cThe album is filled with really good [musicians] who are also really good friends of mine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Though there are myriad influences and styles that inform his new album \u2013 and his musical worldview overall \u2013 Johnson believes that it all comes together. Describing The Medicine Cabinet<\/i>\u2019s character as \u201cacoustic elements with a lot of soul and church,\u201d he sums it up succinctly: \u201cWe\u2019re creating a sound called Appalachian soul.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gospel, soul, folk, blues, funk, show tunes and more: those are just some of the styles in which Asheville native Datrian Johnson is immersed. The singer\u2019s body of work \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,69],"tags":[4997],"class_list":["post-30207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-soul","tag-datrian-johnson","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30209,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30207\/revisions\/30209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}