By Kevin A. Casey
University of South Dakota, Vermillion
Entertainment Editor
February 9, 1982
On February 5th, I had the opportunity to interview Michael Johnson just before he began his ninth concert at USD.
Volante: What kind of equipment do you carry with you?
Johnson: Well, more than half the time, i don't haul anything except eight or nine microphones and one or two guitars. I play a Kono, which is a handmade Japanese classical guitar (the instrument he played) and I've got a Guild D-40 and I dearly love which I didn't bring tonight because it needs a little help, but a gut-string and a steel-string is usually what I have with me. As for equipment for the concert we use Klipsh La Scala speakers which are handmade by Paul Klipsh. They look homemade because we stripped them and stained them; we got real tired of rock and roll primer bolack. We have one Phase-Linear, Fuzz Linear as I call it, amplifier, and a Macintosh that we've had for years and that I really trust. For monitors, we have a Yamaha PM700 mixer, a twenty-seven band graphic equalizer and an Orbin parametric equalizer in case the guiar has some problems.
Volante: And your wife runs all this equipment, right?
Johnson: Right. She runs all the sound, and sometimes we'll have a clearcom set on her head so she can call the lights at the same time. She's also helped in the studio.
Volante: How much of your time out of the year is spent on the road?
Johnson: This year's been light, I've been mostly in the studio.
Volante: You've been out of the country, too.
Johnson: Yeah, and that was great. I found that they were really polite. Like, they applauded the introductions to songs that I know they had never heard before...because I have never recorded them, but they would applaud them because it was like...well, we've never heard this one, and we don't want to alienate this guy, so...It was kind of like playing at the Air Force Academy, like thousands of white glove clapping together.
Volante: We seldom watch those late-night rock shows on T.V. but we understand that you have appeared on those...
Johnson: Yeah, Midnight Special
Volante: What is that like?
Johnson: Really weird. Only the headliner and Wolfman play in front of a live audience. We did the Midnight Special at nine o'clock in the morning. There were six directors sitting in a row in their director's chairs and they shot over the backs of their heads so the camera's eye told you that you were just looking over the front row and catching a live performance in front of a huge audience. It's only the headliner that they pan back on.
Volante: Can you tell us about the new record?
Johnson: Right now we're in early pre-production, whatever that means. It's going to be more of my guitar. I've discovered that because of songs like "Almost Like Being in Love" that anything in a minor key with a constant groove kind of pulls a little R & B out of me, and there's a little jazz that wants to come out in the arrangements, so we've decided that that's fun...actually the record company has decided that that's potentially lucrative (laughter) and that's fine with me cause I'd rather be doing that than being confronted with vanilla pop ballads (more laughter) although a great song transcends all that. Songs of substance are hard to find no matter what.
Michael Johnson concert is a Hit at USD
From the back of the hall, Michael Johnson looks like a teenager with semi-long blond hair and a beguiling smile. From the orchestra section, he looks more like youthful man of the world. The lines of thousands of shows and millions of miles on the road show in his face. He has earned his laurels.
Onstage alone with a classical guitar, his melancholic songs resounding through the hall, he keeps the audience happy with his marvelous guitar playing ahd his sweet folk inspired voice.
Johnson's USD show started late in the evening-after ten fifteen-and Slagle was about three quarters filled on the main floor. He appeared in jeans and a blue sweater, his guitar at his side, and that wonderful first minute tension between a performer and his audience took hold.
When he began to play, the audience relaxed, and continued to do so for the rest of the show. That seems to be one of Johnson's hallmarks, making his audience feel at home.
His guitar technique is another. His style is incredible, filling in all the spaces with runs and chord patterns not usually heard from solo performers. His playing is truly inspired, although he was having some tuning problems.
Aside from his better-known songs like "Almost Like Being in Love," and "Bluer Than Blue," he did songs ranging from "Take Five" jazz to "One Note Samba." His variety of music seems to showcase his outstanding guitar playing and his voice, which harkens back to his folk roots of the sixties.
Although his show was quite long-over two hours-he was called back for an encore. After the show, the audience comments were all in the affirmative...Michael Johnson is a hit at USD.