Gene Johnson

I am jamming with some guys right now, we're looking at putting together a classic rock & blues band. I am using my Roland guitar synth for organ, horns & horn sections so we're working up some classic blues/R&B sounds. I met a drummer, Cliff Lippert, who has been a full time pro for years, at one point drumming for Gregg Allman. He was in an accident and ended up back in new York State. We played and everything clicked. I brought my friend Randy Miles ans we all went to Dave Berg's place and started jamming in his basement. Dave plays bass. So far it's been...just UNbelievable!! I am having a great time! We all are!

I started playing drums in grade school and continued that through high school. In college in 1965 I started messing with the guitar but continued to play drums. In 1968 I left Bradford Pennsylvania to go to Boston and play drums for a band I had filled in for - their drummer was in jail - when they came to play at the local University of Pittsburgh campus. It was in Boston that I was introduced to the blues. I also saw Led Zeppelin for the first time in Boston in the winter of 1968 and again in the spring of 1970. It was an epiphany! In 1970, living in San Francisco, I started seriously pursuing playing guitar. I also got to personally meet Led Zeppelin after a concert at Winterland. About the same time I also started playing blues harp. In the mid 70's I learned electric bass. I also attended music school taking classes in theory, harmony, ear training and fingerboard. After moving back in Pennsylvania in the 80's I fell in with some country players and learned some fiddle. I gave private instruction on guitar, bass, harmonica and drums during the 80's and into the 90's. I was introduced to recording in San Francisco where, in the mid 70's, I was on an album with a folk rock band called Jacob's Ladder. The machine we used in John Altman's recording studio was the Ampex 16 track that the Grateful Dead used to record their European tour (the Ice Cream Kid album)! I also did some studio calls on guitar and harmonica. I built my own 4-track reel-to-reel setup in the late 70's and started recording my own musical ideas. Up until a couple years ago I played with a lot of different bands doing rock and country. My main musical outlet nowadays is recording on my PC. I still do occasional studio calls in this area for people looking for "in the pocket" blues picking, slide guitar and harp on their tracks. My own musical style is pretty much straight ahead rock and blues. For blues, I like about any style, from a horn section blues band sound to the SRV type of jam. As to rock, I tend to toward the heavy Led Zeppelin type of sound. I am primarily a guitarist and love self-indulgent guitar solos. Since getting into digital recording I have branched into other styles using soundfonts for horn sections orchestral instruments, latin percussion and the like. Having the background of taking music theory and harmony classes in the 70s has paid off for me here. Phoenix Rizing is pretty much a variety act. We play anything from acoustic country through blues and classic rock and original tunes. For much of our music we use backing tracks we have digitally recorded.

In the bass player's basement! Special moments? EVERY time we play together.

When I started pursuing lead guitar playing, my objective was to play blues. Rock playing came as a logical extension of playing blues. The first blues record I ever bought was by T-Bone Walker. Among my influences on my playing and my music in general I count Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Chuck Berry, Blind Willie Johnson, Jimmy Page, John Lee Hooker, Z.Z. Top, the Allmans, Jessie Ed Davis, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Hank Williams (Sr.), Lynrd Skynrd, Willie Nelson, Taj Mahal, Blind Blake, Michael Bloomfield, Beatles, Lewis Doss, Amos Garrett, Paul Butterfield, Ravi Shankar, the Rolling Stones, Peter Green, The Electric Flag, Carlos Santana and countless others.

I use Cakewalk Sonar Producer 5 on a home-built PC for recording. Audio, harmonica, guitars & vocals are recorded as audio, all other instruments are done with softsynths, MIDI and soundfonts. Guitar and guitar synth parts are recorded direct using a Digitech GNX4. I also have a Roland GR-33 guitar synth. I also have a Casio keyboard that I use as a MIDI controller in my recording setup. Not being much of a keyboardist, I do all my MIDI sequencing "longhand," wriitng out the parts in standard musical notation in Sonar's staff view.

I love rock and roll. I love blues. Everything I do comes from that. I like it loud, fast and raunchy. I specialize in self-indulgent guitar solos. The more I get into digital composition, the more I like to explore other genres of music.