His online videos are hard to cruise past. There’s his wide stylistic range, but also the guitars he built out of cigar boxes, whiskey barrels, and shovels. It amounts to a cottage industry of CDs, guitars, accessories, and instructional material.

Beginning in 2014, the versatile Johnson – who has played on a Bootsy Collins CD and collaborated with John Carter Cash – released five albums prior to six “Bootleg” volumes of impromptu recordings taken from his videos. This studio outing finds him backed by Poco drummer Rick Lonow, Nashville session keyboardist Mike Webb, and famed bassist Will Lee.

“Six Of One” rides an infectious funk rhythm with a slide/wah frenzy, while “Blacktop Horizon” mines a John Lee Hooker boogie groove. “Part 1” of “Before You Go” is meditative, almost dirge-like, while “Part 2” is a swirl of pounding tom-toms and multi-delayed slide layers.

His main electrics were a Wild Customs modular Gyrock with a rotating pickup system, and a PRS S2 Standard 24. Of the latter, he says, “It’s so versatile and nails those vintage tones better than most of my vintage guitars.”

Most important, Johnson’s originals are so strong you scarcely notice there are no vocals.

This article originally appeared in VG’s April 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.