Veteran rock outsider Patricio Johnson releases Nothing, his sixth solo album

Nashville rocker pays tribute to vintage rock, soul and R&B with a set of lovingly crafted, home-recorded originals


NASHVILLE, Tennessee, November 15, 2023–With Nothing, Nashville singer-songwriter Patricio Johnson has brought out a new full-length album that defines the role of the journeyman rocker in this age of influencers and TikTok creators. That he has done so from within the confines of his one-bedroom apartment in grimy Madison, Tennessee (it’s a close suburb of Nashville itself) with virtually no budget, playing all of the instruments himself, might be a testimony to the state of economic affairs that plagues artists in general, though it also highlights a resilience that the 60-year-old makes manifest in every one of the 11 tracks that compose Nothing. Not for nothing did he make his latest music after 35 years in the business. As he sings in one of the newly written rockers you discover on Nothing, you are rock and roll, and he knows whereof he speaks, because he’s the quintessence of the term. 

Pat Johnson (he reclaimed his birth name Patricio in the middle Aughts as a “disambiguator” when the digital music boom revealed several other Pat Johnsons) dropped out of University of Minnesota in 1986 and dove headlong into the burgeoning college radio band scene. Touring and recording with bands on the club circuit led to a sojourn in San Francisco. There he joined ex-Avengers lead singer Penelope Houston’s newly minted acoustic project. Around the same time, he joined (former Long Ryder) Sid Griffin’s Coal Porters, recorded with avant-noise outfit Royal Trux–he is featured on Drag City DC1, the first single released by the iconic label–and released his own Wellsprings of Hope album. In 1993 Johnson relocated to Germany, where he was lauded as a solo artist and toured with Penelope Houston and Townes Van Zandt. 

Johnson titled the album Nothing as a self-deprecating nod to Todd Rundgren’s 1972 multi-instrumentalist masterpiece Something/Anything?  Just like Todd, Johnson plays virtually all the instruments on Nothing. (His Wellsprings LTD mate John Kent is behind the drums on three tracks.) Despite the close quarters of the recording setup and the usual limited resources, these tracks sound radio ready–albeit for 1973. Stylistically, titles like “Cloudburst,”  “Tears From A Stone” and “Tell Me Your Name” belie the influence of seventies British Pub Rock icons like Dave Edmunds, Brinsley Schwarz, and Graham Parker. Johnson the lyricist deftly evokes heartache on “Immediate Blue” and an ironic worldview that his maturity as an artist often blends into self-referential retrospection, as on “You Are Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which we mentioned earlier. If Nothing betrays any outward theme, it might well be that singing these songs is an emblem of survival for an artist who may never be a household name. No matter, because he knows you are rock ‘n’ roll, and he remains dedicated to the proposition that creating those glorious sounds is still the greatest pursuit of all.

Cloudburst

Top Of The Stack

Put It In Your Pocket

Tears From A Stone

Tell Me Your Name

County Line

Heartache On 45

You Are Rock And Roll

That's The Way (That I'll Break Your Heart)

Immediate Blue

Resurrection

Who played on this? I don't know. What a weird song.

On My Knees

Palao / Hesla / Goldsworthy / PJ lineup knocking out a couple tunes before Silos hit the stage at Slim's, SF

Wellsprings - Kentucky Loozer / Rocketship 18 May93

Devotion (live)

Wally Sound and I cooked this up one day - kinda fun.

Surf España

Wellsprings of Hope flip to the Soul Temptation 7" on Id Records ca 1991.

Schedule A

Another Train Blues

Rhythm section recorded a while back - Pat Thomas on drums and Alec Palao on bass, probably Michael Montalto on organ, myself on guitar, Vocal, harmonica and tremolo guitar recorded today. I'd been waiting for inspiration to strike for so many years on this one, but since it hadn't I went ahead and wrote some lyrics anyway. Have fun!

She Broke Me

Wellsprings of Hope "Phonograph" album (Safety Net 1991)featured a handful of great musicians that I was really lucky to work with- this might be the best combo - Steven Strauss on bass, Alan Goldsworthy on drums, Chris Cacavas on piano, clarinet genius Ben Goldberg, and late great Ralph Carney on baritone sax. Of the last mentioned, I have to say I think of and miss him frequently.

Drinking Water

Brash, rowdy, bank robber tale. Many guitars and one busy harmonica.

Up The River

C Note Melody - Frankfurt 19-9-1995

First podcast from the New Bunker, made me miss the Blue Bunker, so decided to play some blues. Samantha Fish, James Cotton, John Mayall, Sweet Chariot, et. al. 45 minutes.

Music Monarchs - Blue (made with Spreaker)

Beggar's Cup

Famous Butterfly

People In Memphis

Gentle Voices (with Penelope Houston)

Mono Vee

Fire & Gold

White Forge

Another Train Blues (2019 Remaster)

A guitarist, singer, and songwriter who has moved back and forth between the acoustic and electric sides of roots rock, Patricio (aka Pat) Johnson first made a name for himself working with Penelope Houston, the former lead vocalist with San Francisco punk pioneers the Avengers. In the 1980s, Houston moved away from punk formalism into acoustic music, and Johnson played guitar on her 1988 solo debut, Birdboys, beginning a musical relationship that continues to this day. Johnson was also an early member of Neil Hagerty's noise-assault combo Royal Trux, leaving the group after playing on a pair of early singles, and Johnson also popped up on the first two albums by the Coal Porters, an early alt-country group led by former Long Ryders leader Sid Griffin. Johnson stepped up as a frontman with the band Wellsprings of Hope, who released their sole full-length, Phonograph, in 1991. After Wellsprings split up following appearances on a number of compilations, Johnson debuted as a solo act with the 1995 album Mooner, recorded during a sojourn in Germany. A rougher and noisier set, Invisible Juan, followed in 1997, and between 1999 and 2001, Johnson cut back on his work in music. He returned with a vengeance in 2002 with a new band, the rootsy but garage-influenced Maydays, while playing out frequently with Houston, the rough-hewn country-rock outfit the Rusty Nails, and a handful of other San Francisco-based bands. Following a collection of rare and live recordings, Famous Butterflies, in 2005, Johnson re-released Mooner in the US as October Moon, and formed a new band, Pat Johnson & the New Sheiks. He rejoined forces with Houston for the latter's tragically overlooked 2012 set On Market Street which featured the iconic Johnson original Come Back To The Fountain. Upon relocating to Nashville in 2015 Johnson returned his attentions to his solo material, as evidenced on the 2019 release You Gotta Be Quick Around Here.

-All Music Guide (with addenda)

Patricio Johnson has a new album called You Gotta Be Quick Around Here that is available from his website patriciojohnson.com as well as streaming on all platforms.

Patricio Johnson

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