Album Notes

Some of the best human stories are the hardest to tell - those stories that are acted out inside a person, instead of out in the world. But the facts of Ben Johnson's life more than hint at the presence of just such a story. For without some kind of internal movement, how does a self-described nerd kid move from wanting to be liked for something other than his musical talent to pursuing a career as a performing singer and songwriter? How does he get from the shelter of his southwestern Missouri farm family to facing down life as a working musician in the windy city? The answers to these questions and some you wouldn't dare ask can be found in his work, which is at once searching, intimate and subtly powerful. He is already well on his way to meeting his own standard of being "lyrically direct and musically adventurous." In a review of a performance at the Burning Question Coffeehouse, Tribune journalist George Rawlinson described Ben's performance as "lightning in a bottle" . Perhaps if Chopin and Tori Amos had a child, and let Elton John raise him, he would play the piano like Ben Johnson. But that wouldn't explain his voice, which somehow manages to be both flawlessly controlled and emotionally raw at the same time. Of the newcomers to the scene, there are always some good writers who may become good performers, some good performers whose material might mature. Once in a great while, along comes a "beginner" who is already nothing short of excellent on every front, and Ben Johnson is that musician. He is already well on his way to meeting his own standard of being "lyrically direct and musically adventurous."