[Harp-L] Paul Messinger's review of "Going Somewhere"

[Scott Albert Johnson <scojoharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paul Messinger wrote this review of my album "Going Somewhere," which
releases on June 9th but can be preordered on Bandcamp and iTunes. A
version of this review will appear in the next edition of Harmonica
Happenings, the magazine of SPAH. Paul is one of my favorite harmonica
artists AND one of my favorite songwriters; we have congruent ideas about
how the harmonica can fit into eclectic types of music.  Thanks Paul! SAJ
---
ALBUM REVIEW: Going Somewhere by Scott Albert Johnson
Reviewed by Paul Messinger

My first listenings to the new Scott Albert Johnson release, Going
Somewhere, somehow made me think of the movie, âThe Gods Must Be Crazy.â As
some may recall, the movie told the tale of the Coca-Cola bottle that fell
from the sky and is found by a tribesman living in the Kalahari Desert,
without any context to understand this magical object.

Listening to the things that SAJ does with the harmonica in many ways makes
me think that, like that tribesman, Scott Albert Johnson found the vestal
harmonica that fell from the sky and, without any prior context, discovered
his own, singular language in which to relate to and summon song from this
object that somehow fell from the heavens.

Itâs as if all the context that we as listeners expect and depend on is
somehow undiscovered still, and Scott Albert Johnson encounters this
ten-hole talisman that fell from the sky, for the first time, for all of us
â The joy and wonder in which he encounters this celestial object, and
arranges the sounds and silences of this new-found world are, in a word,
profound.

Scott Albert Johnson is, first and foremost, a songwriter.
His songs cover a kaleidoscopic range of life experiences, inner
imaginings, and song-stylings that have often been largely untouched by the
ten-hole, which, for we harmonicists make them all the more innovative, and
well, fascinating â

Songs like âSimply Human,â the heartfelt cry of a robot who yearns for
inclusion amongst the humanity he has been programmed to serve, are just
not among the usual harmonica-music themes. In production notes provided to
this reviewer, SAJ describes the songâs musical structure: âthe
increasingly seamless mix of organic and synthesized instrumentation is
meant to complement the lyrical theme of our merging with our creations.â

In âFragments,â as Scott explains in the production notes: âWalker Percy
once wrote in The Moviegoer, "Not for five minutes will I be distracted
from the wonder." Thatâs pretty much the way I feel all the time: in awe of
Creation and Infinity and very much unsure of what it all means (but
grateful for the chance to be here to consider it at all). I wanted to try
to capture this feeling in a song about the fundamentals of who we are and
where we are going.â

Then, in tunes like âGoing Somewhereâ and âAll,â there is the FUNK â
It is a Dr. John meets Frankenstein funk, filled with rat-tat-tat staccato
bursts, harp lines structurally set up to function as funky horn lines, but
then they morph into something âother.â For example, in âAllâ, Scottâs
first break is an 8-bar, noteless warble that âsuggestsâ a flat third;
thatâs the best I can describe it, you just gotta hear it â The 2nd harp
break blows freakily precise lines, in freakily imagined time phrasings
with the rest of the band, then blasts into a solo saturated with a tweaked
Richard Hunter phaser-effect-patch â Then, more freakily precise,
freakily-effected, freakily imagined funk-section-line-playing seals the
deal â

And on and on it goes, through different musical styles and characters of
Scottâs imaginings, tune after tune â with a great band that features such
luminaries as Chalmers Davis (a Muscle Shoals/Little Richard sidemanâ check
out âHaunt My Dreamsâ for about as âevilâ an organ part as youâll ever
wanna hear), Scott Albert Johnson re-imagines the instrument as if â well â
as if it fell from the sky, and he encountered it as if it had never been
played or heard before.

Experience the joy and wonder of it â this is a ride worth taking, folks.
---
**New album GOING SOMEWHERE out June 9th, 2015!**
*scottalbertjohnson.com <http://www.scottalbertjohnson.com/>   *
*facebook.com/scottalbertjohnsonmusic
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Albert-Johnson/57364390664>*