Junior has been busy recording with the one and old Mr Mudd Wallace. We currently have the guide tracks finished for most of the new material. Junior will keep you all posted on how he is getting on via Twitter and Facebook.
Junior hopes to have the album in the bag ready for sale by September.
Twitter: @JuniorJohnson
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/juniorjohnsonmusic
All the Best,
Jo Wright
Junior Johnson Management
A Truth for yez…
About 13 years ago, it must have been on MSN messenger, or maybe in person, someone else can fill in the details, I was asked to play music at Rainey Old Boys Rugby club. ‘You play guitar don’t ye? My Daddy needs a band for 2 weeks time, for two hours. Can you do it?’ – Katy Campbell (nee MacFalone)
I walked to the house across the street from my childhood home and asked my neighbour Gerard McNeill if he’d like to help. We’d played some Oasis songs in his garage with him on drums a year or two before, using Iain Harrison as the distortion pedal switch (no pedal, just 15w ‘Fender’ amp). He agreed, so we both went to another neighbour, Conor McCaffrey, and enlisted him initially as lead singer, but puberty put pay to that. It was unanimously agreed that Joe McKeague was certainly to be in the band and shambolic rehearsals commenced.
We had 2 hours of awful versions of covers in the 2 weeks. Included were Eagles, Oasis, Dubliners, Clancy’s, and many more I’ve thankfully forgotten about, but at least one Kris Kristofferson song insisted on by Christine Loughrey. A few flickers of hope.
We had tiny guitar amps and in general the entire affair was a disaster, but drunks love a yeehaw.
We hired the PA from the ever-gentle, ever-patient, always obliging Danny Otterson, and every time after that, too. I remember my mother racing her (then mine, then burnt out by wankers I grew up with and swapped cd’s with, I was a wee fenian back then ye see; never harmed anyone, just stole a few flegs) 1.2 Vauxhall Nova Merit at over 100mph up the Glenshane Pass to get a mic stand before Danny locked up at 5.30pm on a Saturday.
I digress.
The band became well thought of, we played everywhere and anywhere and on a promise or a fortune it was great steam. The stool juggler, the crazy Longford gypsies… truth be told, there wasn’t a better Irish Folk band on the road then.
We even ended up opening for Shane MacGowan. Twice. Second time he made us go back on for an encore…
Passing him at the side curtain of the stage in The Grill in Letterkenny I asked… ‘Well Shane, what’d ya think? Were we any good??’
Shane replied, ‘ You little kants, I’m not going on till you do another one, get back on that facking stage hhhcccccchhhhhccchhh’
True bill. I’ll die happy on that one alone.
I left the band and I took three days off work and didn’t know where I was going. Cliched as it is, I didn’t expect it to hit me as bad.
All my fault, obviously, but I didn’t know how I was going to get it back.
In this time I have taken part in and been a part of some fabulous journeys, events and gigs, but the fire wasn’t white hot, not like back then.
2013…
Initially asked to play a tribute night to Henry McCullough, I asked a few folks, who’s acquaintance, in life terms I’d only just met, if they’d be up for it. I knew they were big fans and immediately they agreed.
So for the last 8-10 weeks, Glenn Hutchinson, Nico Divito, Mark Beatty, Barry Fahy and myself have been squirrelling away in a purpose built rehearsal space in the dales of south Derry. In that time we’ve amassed an hour or so of cover songs and there’s even a couple of filthy new originals in the mix. I haven’t been so excited or proud to be a part of something musically since The Rapparees. The musicians are shit-hot and sticky as treacle.
You can expect to hear a whole lot more from THE GREASED PALM in the coming months and hopefully many years.
Our first stage spot will be in The Cellar Bar, Draperstown on Saturday 11th May. We are opening for those stalwarts of Rock n Roll The Screaming Gypsies.
We hope you enjoy an hour of solid dancing and grooving from us, and 2 hours of the best rock n roll hits from them.
The Greased Palm – Putting the Roll back into Rock!
I first met Henry in Homestead studios in Randalstown. It’s gone now, some rotten prospectors took
a great big shit on the only
piece of heritage that place had left. Ian Fleming lived nearby, once, and
some locals love to lay claim to the ancestors of John Wayne. But, they all left.
I had written some songs, my friends liked them and I’d approached Mudd, the local and world
famous producer. He was recording some songs that he’d collaborated in at the time and he was
able to cajole some heavy players into playing on my record, too. More about them later.
On the other gig he was working on, with great writers Mick O’Mahoney and George McFall; he
wanted old friend and real living legend Henry McCullough on guitar.
Henry came down one evening and brought in two cases. In one was his new (to replace the stolen)
335 Cherry, and in the other, a gold top Les Paul that he’d played on the stage at Woodstock with
Joe Cocker and in Wings with Paul McCartney.
I was just proud to be the one who made the tea.
I listened intently all night to stories of everything, mostly unmentionable here and of course to
some of the finest guitar licks that you’ll probably never hear. The songs were never really released,
but I still have them in a raw form, and listen to them about every single day. Anyone can play guitar,
but it takes a unique style for someone to be prick up their rashers and say, ‘that’s B.B., or Knopfler,
or Henry McCullough.’
Since then I’ve had the enviable pleasure of sharing his company and conversation on many
occasions. For those who don’t know him he’s a gentleman, the kind that is mostly gone now. The
last great generation. And if you’re fortunate enough to talk to him, his jilted take and raw, honest
opinion on most things is laden with both wisdom and comedy.
The pleasure he draws from playing with great musicians is palpable and for two straight hours,
those fellas never stopped. Real Old School Rock n Roll Blues. 44 years since Woodstock, the man
has forgotten more about music, and living, than most of us will ever know. Many people have
written many great things about the man so I’ll save you another diatribe. Just my tuppence and two
more from a good friend.
I love the man.
‘We were in the Menagerie (Belfast) to see Henry; we were about halfway back, waiting on the pills
to come up. There was a guy down front who we hadn’t seen, but who’d been playing with Henry’s
microphone stand. Pushing it back and forth. Hitting Henry in the mouth. Henry told him to stop
and he didn’t. Henry jumped down off the stage, the guy tried to run away, but the crowd was too
thick. Henry raised the 335 up over his head and cracked yer man on the skull, and he went down.
By the time the bouncers got to the fracas Henry was choking him. They dragged the offender off
and fired him out the side door. Henry hopped back onto the stage, hit a big open A chord, and
guttered into the mic, ‘I’ve got fuckin Murder in my HEART!’ And the ecstasy roared up my back like
a freight train.’
JUNIOR JOHNSON
Irish troubadour Junior Johnson brews his own blend of moonshine combining Americana , Folk and the Blues. Junior subtly draws his influences from the greats (with hints of George Thorogood and Willie Nelson)
Aiming high for 2010, and following his very well received EP ‘Stoned, Ripped, Twisted. Good People’ Junior is focusing on recording new material and gigging flat out. So far this year has brought Junior his own weekly show on Feile FM promoting indie music.
Having just returned from a tour of the New England area of the USA in late 2009 with a bucketful of experiences and songs, Junior, and the raw, ready and effortlessly smooth band that support him, are chomping to be heard, and judging by the recent stint of gigs they’ve dusted, with great reason.
Junior has shared the stage with the likes of Shane MacGowan (The Pogues), Frankie Miller’s Full House Band and has graced the Eagle’s Rock Tent at Glasgowbury for three consecutive years, gigging extensively all over in between.
In 2006, Junior was honoured with the title of L.A. Music Awards Folk Artist of the year for his song, The Fireside, an honest detailing of the life that a once unfortunate friend now leads. This highly coveted acknowledgment was an achievement to further echo Junior’s raw talent as a solo artist.
Since he was first played on BBC Radio in July 2005, Junior has received continued support from both regional and international stations and you can hear his music on anything from BBC Radio Ulster shows, the world’s largest webcast, Fame Games, to some college radio stations in Rhode Island, USA and Vancouver, Canada.
‘I write songs that I believe in. I hope that the lyrics reflect some sort of honesty from my own experience in life. I’m not trying to fool anyone. Except myself; maybe.’ – Junior Johnson
‘I couldn’t do a best of 2009 without including the stunning Ballad of Glasgowbury, what an absolutely staggering song it is.’ – Stephen McCauley, Electric Mainline BBC
