Freehand, by Orville Johnson

Freehand

by Orville Johnson

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1.	Imitation of the Blues 04:04	info	buy track
2.	Dobro Rhumba 03:16	info	buy track
3.	Somewhere 03:52	info	buy track
4.	You Are the One 04:21	info	buy track
5.	A Lua do Amazonia 05:19	info	buy track
6.	Rocky Road Blues 04:13	info	buy track
7.	As Tears Go By 03:17	info	buy track
8.	Yazoo City Jail 04:21	info	buy track
9.	Waggy Tail 03:10	info	buy track
10.	Today 04:27	info	buy track

about

Originally released in 2003

I titled this album Freehand because it developed over time with no overarching plan. I would go into the studio when I had something I believed in and gathered the cuts in an improvisational way. As I said in the original liner notes, when I was in art school we'd often start a drawing class by fixing our eyes on a subject and letting our pencils glide across the paper, delineating the picture that was framed in our mind's eye. Never looking at the paper. Freehand. Loose. Fluid. Feeling the connection, the contour, the groove. That's the feeling I hoped to capture.

I was particularly honored on this album to play with two of my dobro heroes, mentors, and friends, Mike Auldridge and Stacy Phillips. I learned to play the dobro by dropping the needle 10 thousand times on Mike's groundbreaking "Dobro" album and internalizing every note. Stacy's playing on Tony Trishcka's album "Bluegrass Light" showed me a spirit of adventure, playfulness, and joy that illustrated how the dobro could fit in any kind of music. I've tried to incorporate the lessons I learned from them in my own music.

This album is dedicated to two other great artists, mentors, and friends- John Jackson & John Hartford

Special Thanks: Parry Marston • Richard Russell • John Miller • Brad Inserra • Becky Knowles • Josh & Evelyn Graves • John O • Trish Byerly • Emily, Miles, & Sarah Laven • Bruce Lamb • Stuart Brune • Ron Phillips • Michael Dunn • Shirley Lowe •

credits

released March 13, 2020

The writer, musician, and engineering credits are all listed on the individual tracks. Click on each track to find them.

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about

Orville Johnson Seattle, Washington

Orville Johnson was raised in the Illinois heartland. He acquired his love of singing as a youth in the fundamentalist Pentecostal church he attended and, when he later began playing guitar and dobro, responded to the roots music that surrounded him by learning to play the blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music that are all part of the mosaic that characterizes his own mongrel music. ... more

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