Bonamassa as "one of the greatestguitar players of all time", will
embark on his first ever UK tour at the HolmfirthPicturedrome on
Friday 5th July.The 5-date tour will showcase material from his
current album "Up Close",and from his rich back catalogue.
Planet Rock will start at ticket pre-sale on Wednesday 7th
March,followed by a ticket pre-sale from Ents24 on Thursday 8th March.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday 9th Marchvia the 24
hour box office: 0844 478 0898, www.thegigcartel.com.
Johnson is also a respected acoustic, lapsteel, resonator and an
accomplished pianist and vocalist. He's best known forhis diverse
array of music genres evidenced by many different stylesincorporated
in his studio and live performances, including rock, blues,
jazz,fusion, folk, New Age and country music.
Guitar Player magazine called Johnson"one of the most respected
guitarists on the planet". His criticallyacclaimed, platinum-selling
1990 recording Ah ViaMusicom produced the single Cliffs ofDover, for
which he won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best RockInstrumental
Performance. Cliffs of Dover also appeared in GuitarHero 3 – Legends
of Rock. In 1996 he joined forces with JoeSatriani and Steve Vai for
the originaland legendary G3 tour that garnered a worldwide audience
with theplatinum selling CD and DVD release.
Johnson is best known for playing stockFender Stratocasters and Gibson
ES-335 electric guitars through a triple ampsetup that consists of
vintage Fender and Marshall amplifiers.He plays vintage Stratocasters,
including his 'Fender Signature Stratocaster'model, which is one of
the best selling instruments in the Fender catalogue.
Eric Johnson July 2012 UK Tour:
Holmfirth Picturedrome
Friday 6th July
Tickets: £25.00 (advance)
Box Office 0844 478 0898
Market Walk, Holmfirth, HD9 7DA
www.picturedrome.net
Glasgow O2 ABC
Saturday 7th July
Tickets: £25.00 (advance)
Box Office 0844 477 2000
Doors: 7pm / Stage: 7:30pm
300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JA
www.o2abcglasgow.co.uk
The Sage Gateshead
Sunday 8th July
Tickets: £25.00 (advance)
Box Office 0191 443 4661
Doors: 7pm / Stage: 7:30pm
St Mary's Square, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 2JR
http://thesagegateshead.org
Bath Komedia
Monday 9th July
Tickets: £25.00 (advance)
Box Office: 0844 478 0898
Doors: 7:30pm / Stage: 8pm
22-23 Westgate Street, Bath, Avon, BA1 1EP
www.komedia.co.uk/bath
London – Leicester Square Theatre
Tuesday 10th July
Tickets: £30.00 (advance)
Box Office: 0844 478 0898
Doors: 7pm / Stage: 7:30pm
6 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BX
www.leicestersquaretheatre.com
Eric Johnson's stature as one of the premier guitar players in
contemporary music is his artistic trump card, backed by a Grammy
Award and five nominations, platinum album, Top 10 hits like Cliffs of
Dover, praise from critics and the esteem of his peers. The full range
of his talents marks him as a gifted songwriter, dynamic live
performer, singer, pianist, and song interpreter.
His myriad and distinctive musical gifts are vividly evident on
Johnson's current studio album, Up Close, released on his own Vortexan
Music label. The 15-track disc finds the noted master craftsman
cutting loose, roaming through variations on the rock, blues, pop,
country and jazz genres, pushing the dynamic range of his artistry,
and mixing it up with such friends and peers as guitarists Jimmie
Vaughan and Sonny Landreth, plus guest vocalists Steve Miller, Johnny
Lang and Malford Milligan.
"I decided to let go a bit and allow things to happen and just go with
the flow," explains Johnson about his approach to the album. "That's a
direction that works better for any artist, and especially for me. I
like my work to have a high proficiency, but I also want to go for the
energy and magic of the performances."
That vitality and vivid musicality brims from such hook-filled numbers
as the hard-rocking instrumentals Fat Daddy and Vortexan and the
driving vocal song Brilliant Room (sung by Milligan). Gem is splashed
with bright and painterly six-string colors, Soul Surprise finds
Johnson weaving a picturesque tapestry of both his guitar and piano
gifts, and Arithmetic summons up a swirling and spectral kaleidoscope
of guitars, keyboards and Johnson's singing.
His early years and influences are explored on the Mike
Bloomfield/Buddy Miles-composed blues song Texas (from the 1968
Electric Flag album A Long Time Comin') on which Miller sings and
Johnson's and Vaughan's guitars engage in stirring interplay, and
Austin (sung by Lang), which looks back to his teens in his hometown
as a budding player and avid music fan who would be allowed to slip
under-aged into music nightclubs and "go sit in the back and listen to
bands."
On The Way is a delightful Texas meets Tennessee twang romp, and A
Change Has Come To Me opens with a six-string nod to Jimi Hendrix (a
prime Johnson influence) that carries through the track as it burgeons
into a celebration of the pleasures of the deep and soulful groove.
Interstitial instrumental snippets like the spellbinding Indian
music-flavored opener Awaken and the dreamlike Traverse and The Sea
and the Mountain plus Change (Revisited) weave the collection
together. Johnson caps the CD with the uplifting grace note of Your
Book on which he and Landreth interweave their playing (including
Johnson's stately piano work) with emotive elegance.
The lyrical themes of reflection, emotional revelations, personal
growth and fulfillment are underscored on the album by Johnson's most
daring, urgent, progressive and at times raw and fervent guitar work
to date. With its sonic immediacy (thanks to a mix by engineering
legend Andy Johns) and openhearted musicality and songwriting, Up
Close truly lives up to its name as Johnson continues to forge fresh
and compelling new dimensions of his artistry.
Johnson leapt to the forefront of contemporary music some 20 years ago
as "an extraordinary guitar player accessible to ordinary music fans,"
as the Memphis Commercial Appeal hails him, with his landmark million
selling 1990 album Ah Via Musicom. Hailed as a record that reached
near-classic proportions within the guitar community, it was preceded
by dedicated groundwork as a live performer that marked him as a
talent bound for great things. And it's been followed by a diverse and
fascinating musical journey that inspired The New Age Music Guide to
rave that "Eric Johnson plays guitar the way Michelangelo painted
ceilings: with a colorful vibrancy that's more real than life."
His achievements include being enshrined in Guitar Player's Gallery of
Greats and named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th
Century by Musician magazine amongst numerous other awards. He enjoys
the admiration of many of his fellow players and has performed/
recorded with such notables as Chet Atkins, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani
and others.
He was tapped by Eric Clapton to appear at the 2004 Crossroads Guitar
Festival and plays his second stint of the Experience Hendrix tour in
fall 2010. He has paid homage in song to such players as Jerry Reed
("Tribute to Jerry Reed" on his album Bloom), fellow Texan Stevie Ray
Vaughan (the Grammy-nominated track "SRV") and Wes Montgomery (who
Johnson saluted in his Ah Via Musicom song "East Wes"), and boasts
both a signature Fender Stratocaster electric and Martin MC-40
acoustic guitar. "Cliffs of Dover" is featured in the video game
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as the final winning challenge. And
in addition to his recordings, tours and DVDs under his own name,
Johnson also plays with his side project Alien Love Child, which
released an in concert album in 2000, Live and Beyond, that earned an
instrumental Grammy nomination for the song "Rain."
Eric Johnson – Official Website
www.ericjohnson.com
Eric Johnson - Facebook
www.facebook.com/OfficialEricJohnson
Eric Johnson - Twitter
https://twitter.com/#!/EJUpClose
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