Jeremiah Johnson
Blending the regional blues style of his native St. Louis with strains of gritty Southern rock and country, Jeremiah Johnson cut his teeth on the Gulf Coast blues circuit before returning to Missouri and launching a successful career in the 2010s. He established himself with a series of independent albums and signed with German blues specialists Ruf Records, which released highlights like 2018's Straitjacket and 2020's chart-topping Heaven to Betsy. Johnson returned in 2022 with the crafty Hi-Fi Drive By.
Named by his father after the titular character in the 1972 Robert Redford western, Johnson began playing at a young age, studying jazz during his college years, then playing in a number of rock bands. He migrated to blues music while living in Texas' Gulf Coast region, and in the mid-2000s took home first place in the Houston Blues Society Regional Blues Challenge for three years in a row. By the end of the decade, he'd returned home to St. Louis and formed the Jeremiah Johnson Band. Combining his love of electric blues with the St. Louis sound, he folded in elements from his rock years along with jazz and country influences, releasing a pair of independent albums, 9th & Russell (2010) and Brand Spank'n Blue (2011), backed by regional horn section the Sliders. His career received a boost in 2014 when Australian filmmaker Gary Glenn made Johnson the subject of his documentary Ride the Blues, which featured a live concert and a series of interview segments about Johnson's career trajectory. It set the table for his first solo release, Grind, which arrived the following year and was produced by Devon Allman, son of guitar legend Gregg Allman. In addition to receiving heavy airplay, the album hit number eight on Billboard's Blues chart. Working again with his backing band, his 2016 release Blues Heart Attack fared even better, reaching number five on the same chart and featuring a wider array of his different musical styles. Johnson signed with Germany's Ruf Records in 2018 and worked with fellow St. Louis bluesman Mike Zito to record his next release, Straitjacket, before touring Europe the following year.
In early 2020, Johnson hit a new career peak when his album Heaven to Betsy topped the Billboard Blues chart. After his European support tour was cancelled due to the global pandemic, he quickly returned to the studio and recorded the lean back-to-basics set Unemployed Highly Annoyed which came out in October of that year. 2022's Hi-Fi Drive By continued Johnson's streak of quality releases and featured guests like pianist Victor Wainwright and harmonica player Brandon Santini.
© Timothy Monger /TiVo
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Blues Caravan 2020 (Live)
Whitney Shay, Ryan Perry, Jeremiah Johnson
Blues - Released by Ruf Records GmbH on 29 Jan 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Unemployed Highly Annoyed
Blues - Released by Ruf Records GmbH on 30 Oct 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Blues Heart Attack
Blues - Released by Jeremiah Johnson on 1 Jul 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Humming of the Axis
Folk - Released by Jeremiah Johnson on 27 Feb 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Blues Caravan 2020 (Live)
Whitney Shay, Ryan Perry, Jeremiah Johnson
Blues - Released by Ruf Records on 29 Jan 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Postcards
International Pop - Released by Jeremiah Johnson on 6 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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I put God first
Soul - Released by 5270240 Records DK on 3 May 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Head Towards the Sun
Folk - Released by Jeremiah Johnson on 26 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Homeland
International Pop - Released by Jeremiah Johnson on 11 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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