Album Notes

'I Like the Street' wanders the nocturnal big city, plumbs the vagaries of the heart, and ultimately returns home to an intersection of music and spirit. With knowing nods to Lou Reed, Roxy Music, and ’60s spy movies, Johnny J Blair infuses his urban noir with a disarming sense of hope and optimism. 'Sure, it’s bleak,' he seems to say. 'But it’s going to be OK.'

“I don’t always know what I intend when I start a record,” Blair says. “For me, recording is like breathing, traveling, drinking… a calling. You just keep doing it and results ensue. What I do with the results is another story. For this record, I tried not to be too ‘eclectic,’ at least compared to my other albums. Although I’m still casting a wide net, the consistency of themes and tone ties it together.”

From the postmodern spy vamp, “If I Could Dress Like Clive Owen,” to the overt Velvets tip of the hat, “What Goes On,” Blair measures the heart-pounding rhythms of the urban downtown, using the title track, which cannily catalogs a few of his favorite things, as context. By the time he’s finished, we begin to understand why people gravitate toward the dark mysteries of life in the big city.