Artist: Johnson, Eric
Label: Capitol Records
Release: 1996
Runtime: 58:29
Rating: 5/5
When rock heavyweight George Lynch was asked which guitarist he’d pick if he could be a fly on the wall in his studio for a day, he answered without hesitation: Eric Johnson. Lynch’s enthusiasm is no surprise, because even though the name doesn’t ring as loud as some, in music circles Johnson is considered one of the most respected guitarists on the planet. He’s a virtuoso who’s admired by other virtuosos above all, as shown by the countless guitar magazine covers and the respectful praise from colleagues both famous and less so. Although his motifs draw inspiration from an extremely wide instrumental spectrum, ranging from jazz, new age and rock all the way to blues and country, they still keep a completely distinctive, instantly recognizable character of their own.
The first thing that grabs you about Johnson is the sound of his guitar. It’s a wonderfully ear-pleasing, violin-like blend of Stratocaster softness and carefully considered use of delay, which winds around the author’s sophisticated musical thinking like a vine. Johnson’s refined tone, backed by decades of research and experimentation, is something special in modern music, and it was also one of the reasons Venus isle took almost six years to make. That’s how long it had been since the predecessor Ah via musicom, home to Eric’s biggest hit so far, Cliffs of Dover, which won him a Grammy in 1991. In the best rock instrumental category that year he swept past the competition with ease, and the field included giants like the Allman Brothers, Rush and Yes. The expectations were probably just too high, because Venus Isle, released in 1996, didn’t repeat that success despite obvious quality that reflected Johnson’s growth as a player, producer and arranger, and the guitarist ended up parting ways with Capitol Records. But that year was anything but a failure for Eric, since Satriani invited him on the American tour of the first incarnation of the now-legendary G3 project, which led to a platinum record and the release of the DVD G3: Live in concert.
But back to Venus Isle. It’s a mature album, rounded off both spiritually and musically, full of meditative impressions and moody landscapes that knock on the souls of the pickiest music connoisseurs. After the title track, whose intro shows off the vocal talents of the multi-gifted Amit Chatterjee, comes the melancholic Battle we have won, then the somewhat livelier All about you, where Johnson is joined on vocals by the stocky Christopher Cross, whose career was buried in the early eighties by the arrival of MTV and music videos. The initials of the bluesy instrumental SRV hide, of course, an homage to the great Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Texas legend who died tragically in a helicopter crash in 1990. It’s the instrumental that earned Johnson roaring applause on the G3 tour, making things uncomfortable for Satriani, who had to play after him, and from a compositional standpoint it’s the closest thing to what you could call a hit. Fittingly, Stevie’s brother Jimmie Vaughan guests on guitar this time, though his solos are easy to tell apart from Eric’s masterpieces. The violin motif of Lonely in the night strongly recalls Eleanor Rigby, but any resemblance to the Beatles evaporates in the second half, when the vocals give way to lightning-fast guitar with arpeggios in the style of Malmsteen. You could look for the core of the album in the instrumentals Manhattan, Camel’s night out and Song for Lynette, which reveal Johnson’s technical mastery as well as his compositional chops, and for the finale in the rock-flavored tracks Pavilion and Venus reprise, which round off this magnificent album.
So Venus isle can easily go in the category of the most underrated rock albums of the past decade. Behind it, besides an exceptional feel for music that’s unique in the music industry, are years of hard work and the search for the right sound. During his long research and “tweaking” of different amps, Johnson did considerable damage to his hearing, but not so much that his ear couldn’t catch even the tiniest deviation from his ideal while he was creating. His nitpicking is best captured by accounts from some sound engineers, who recalled that the maestro would flip out if his effects pedals were loaded with batteries of the wrong brand, since that supposedly ruined the entire sonic picture. Asked why Venus isle took so long to make, Johnson said he didn’t want to repeat himself, so he went looking for new ways to express himself while trying to hold on to his perfectionist approach. So this is a musician who, despite a pretty long career, doesn’t have an enviably large discography, but at the same time you can see that all his albums are carefully thought out and polished to perfection in every respect. And that kind of perfection takes time.
Lineup
Eric Johnson – guitar, vocals
Kyle Brock – bass (1,2,4,5,6,7,10)
Roscoe Beck – bass (3,9,11)
Chris Maresh – bass (8)
Tommy Taylor – drums
Bill Maddox – drums(8)
Steve Barber – synthesizer
Production
Eric Johnson, Richard Mullen
Track list
1.Venus Isle
2.Battle we have won
3.All about you
4.SRV
5.Lonely in the night
6.Manhattan
7.Camel’s night out
8.Song for Lynette
9.When the sun meets the sky
10.Pavilion
11.Venus reprise
