 Johnny A. You there, reading this: Johnny A. is cooler than you. On his solo debut "Sometime Tuesday Morning", Johnny A. (so cool he needs no last name) uses his guitar to make the heart melt and sing, the eyes well and the ass shake. This man knows what he's doing, kids; it is for us to just sit back and learn. Accompanied only with bass and percussion (no vocalist necessary), Johnny A. is a master of his instrument, never (okay, almost never) showing off just for the sake of impressing the listener. Songs like "Yes it is" and especially his heartbreaking cover of "Wichita Lineman" cover emotional ground in unexpected ways, through A's grasp of melody and moments of near silence. "Sometime Tuesday Morning" finds Johnny A dipping into several genres: the rockabilly tinged "Up in the Attic" and "Walk Don't Run," with its Latin percussion and tragic pacing, sound like outtakes from the best road movie you've never seen. "Tex Critter" is such a dashboard-thumping song you'll have to listen to it twice just to be sure no one was singing. The fact that it's followed by "Lullabye for Nicole", with its slow, jazzy percussion and Johnny A's mournful guitar work, says as much about the man's varied taste in music as it does about his amazing ability. -Ryan Burkett |
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