DAVID JOHNSON AT THE FRONT PORCH GALLERY

scott freeman, mandolin / david johnson, guitar

scott freeman

david johnson

scott freeman, fiddle / david johnson, fiddle

The music flowed like usual on Friday night at Woodlawn. This time Scott and Willard hosted David Johnson of Wilkes County. David plays everything very well. Sings well. He's an all around musician, all the way around. He told it that his daddy was a picker and he grew up picking guitar the best he could. He said whenever he took an interest in learning a new instrument his daddy would see to it he found one. He mastered all the instruments of bluegrass / old-time. Now he's a master musician with a recording studio, does the electrical work at shows.

You can check him out at http://www.youtube.com/ by writing his name in the search box. Put Scott Freeman's with it. Johnson has other things on there and so does Scott. Both their names should get you there. There aren't any uploaded yet or I'd check it out before I let you know. The first one is on its way up now. An awful lot will be uploaded, maybe 20. It's really good music by two musicians who play music. Their mastery of their instruments is evident while they're making music. They keep a rhythm generated with a drive that makes it move along at a gallop. Mountain music is something you have to start playing very young, by 8. It's a demanding and intelligent music.

Scott and Willard opened the show with 2 songs, one Willard sang, Back to Old Smokey Mountain, and a fiddle tune Scott composed, Rockin the Still House. At the end of the show, Willard emphasized to me that Scott and David playing together is music good as it gets. He's right. Yet, when Willard and Scott make music a flow of at least 30 years of playing music together, their years as Skeeter & the Skidmarks and Alternate Roots. Also Scott's solo albums. Willard and Scott play by intuition. Scott and David were two excellent musicians making music together. They've played a lot together over the years, so it's not like they're strangers.

There is a certain spirit to the music when Scott and Willard play, a kind of dancing spirit. I'd like to hear an album of Scott and Willard together, just them. They can really generate the music. Willard's rhythm guitar sounds good all the time. Scott's fiddle, mandolin or guitar sound good all the time. Together, they can get it going. The seem to me something of a team like Lennon / McCartney. Alternate Roots was a great band. Scott arranged for me to be able to see 14 of their shows they put on in Jefferson some years back. And I drove to the Carter Fold to see them. A Scott and Willard album would only be incredible. It struck me tonight driving home that this computer makes dvds. I could put together dvds of the shows at the gallery. Had 16 songs by Skeeter & the Skidmarks, the same number as on their albums, and that would make a great dvd. I'll start looking into that and see what I can figure out.