Haunting. Evocative. Deep in the Roots. These are but a few honorifics to turn the newcomer on to the most heartfelt and original stylings of Arlington resident Mike Johnson, originator of the Black Yodel Number One, and long time progenitor of “Top Rail” Magazine, specializing in furthering the cause of honest Traditional Country Music!

Picture the Black country performer. Charlie Pride, Big Al Downing, Cleve Francis. Back in the late 1920's, Black harmonica player DeFord Bailey was a charter member of the Grand Old Opry. Of the ‘Singing Cowboys’, only Herb Jeffries was African American. Riding the screen along with better-known stars like Gene Autry, Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers, all of these made an impression on the young Mike Johnson, who’d been born in DC to Margaret and Joseph Johnson. As an altar boy, Parochial pupil, Eagle Scout and camp counselor, Mike moved steadily up life’s ladder until graduating in June of 1965 from Mackin High and by September of that year joined the U.S. Navy.

Mike was assigned a Security Group, took Boot Camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Facility in Illinois, eventually shipping out to San Diego. He served two tours of duty in Viet Nam attached to the USS Constellation (CVA-64) from 1967- 1969. Upon his return to the States, Mike worked a variety of jobs, including Bus Boy, Motorcycle Courier, Freelance Photographer, Driving Instructor, and even a brief stint as Park Police officer. By 1981, he had established himself as a long-distance trucker. Driving a big rig (the longest company he worked with was Newlon’s Transfer, thru to 1995) would play a major role in establishing Mike on the independent Country music circuit.

By now, Mike had gotten comfortable on the guitar, and through his widespread travels had honed himself as he put it, on the music of Jimmie Rogers (“The Singing Brakeman”), Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and the unforgettable Roger Miller. Mike states, “Roger gave me the songwriting bug. I just wanted to be a songwriter! But, I had to do everything else along the way to get there!!”

How did Mike learn to yodel? The answer may surprise you, dear Readers. Let Mike tell the tale in his own words. “It was Johnny Weissmueller, actually. I grew up during the 1950s and 1960s, when adventure movies and cliff-hangers ruled the Silver Screen. Westerns, Gladiators, the Phantom, Flash Gordon, and my all-time favorite, Tarzan! I had read all of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels and the summer camps and Boy Scout camping trips set the stage for many of us to imitate him. I wore out that Tarzan yodel, morning, noon and night! At one point my mother threatened to ship me off to Africa, much to my youthful delight. So, I was really yodeling even before I realized it and when I got into Country music, already had a major head start with the yodeling. Without a doubt, that [the yodeling] paved my early music road.”

Mike wrote his first song in 1957 (the first of what is now well on the way to over 1,000 titles!!). He was, in addition to loving camping and outdoor activities, well equipped as a narrative writer, and a skilled artist. His art and stories were well received by his high school classmates. Mike had some incredible mentoring in the personages Frank Price (who taught him how to shoot and ride bareback on his mare Old Bay) at Ivakota Farm in Clifton, Va. Sam Buckmaster, barn builder and waterman in Prince Frederick, Md. showed Mike the ways of the river. Sam’s sons Keith, Kevin, and Danny taught him crabbing, fishing, and how to scull a row boat or handle a canoe. Although a self-intuitive swimmer, after earning his Mile Swim Badge from the Scouts, he had to learn it all over to pass the rigorous Red Cross Senior Lifesaving Course to qualify at summer camp as Lifesaving Assistant.

Mike had to grow up fast, what with the two tours in Nam, followed in quick succession by a series of harrowing events stateside. First his father passed. Then a best friend died suddenly, followed by a son, and then the loss of his grandmother culminated his sorrows. As if that weren’t enough toll on his emotions, a breakup with his dear childhood sweetheart would set the tone for many of the most enduring songs Mike Johnson would come to create.

In the sixties Mike started performing in earnest around area Honky Tonks and Bars. Some of these our readers may remember were the Shamrock, SW Tavern, Tune Inn, Tucson Cantina, Food For Thought and LeHi Grill – all in DC. In Maryland Dawson’s Pool Hall, Iler’s Store in Ripley, Md. and Boozie’s, Tee-Pee and Club Stabil in Baltimore. Many recall Mike’s memorable gigs at the late lamented Hillbilly Heaven in Lorton, Va.

These appearances paved the way for Mike to play, beyond 1978, all over the map. Silver Saddle and Thirsty Camel, Norfolk, Va. Cap’n Darrell’s, Daytona Beach, Fla. Flying Dutchman, Charleston, SC. JW’s Lil Café and the Bowery, Myrtle Beach. Johnny Homes and Pappa Joe’s, New Orleans. Country Boy Eddie’s TV Show, Birmingham, Ala.

In Nashville alone over the years Mike came to grace the following stages: The Rhinestone, Dusty Roads, Squire’s, Music City Lounge, The Say-When Two, Wagonburner, Bluegrass Inn, The Ranch House, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree, among others – too numerous to mention here!

Working his way back across this great land of ours, Mike hit The Holiday Terrace in Killeen, Texas, Carmen’s in El Paso, Alvin Opry in Alvin Tx., and the Pearland and Manvel Oprys in their respective Texas locales. Add in the 1860 Saloon in St. Louis, Suzie Rowles Musical Showcase, Chambersburg, Pa., 1st Annual 1994 Michigan Jamboree (Hillsdale, Mich.), John Henry Festival, Morgantown, W. Va., Old-Time Country Music Festival in Avoca, Iowa, Eastern Shore Opry, Crisfield, Md., and as Mike adds, “along with numerous truck stops and motel lobbies.”

In 1981, Mike decided to vacation in Nashville for the Easter holiday, and it was then that he did his first pro recording session at Jim Maxwell’s Globe Studio. He booked a two-hour session in which five songs were produced, two of these wound up as his first 45 RPM single, “King of the Fish” b/w “Please Don’t Squeeze The Charmin” on Mike’s MAJJ Productions banner. Mike insists, “I still regard this session as the best one I ever did!”

Mike tells us from here he “quickly became a regular on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, during the 1980's.” He made his first series of appearances at “The Merchant’s,” a combination ‘greasy spoon’ bar & grille/flophouse motel, with a stage in the rear. After appearing in Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree, he soon fell in with some powerful figures on the local scene, like John & Lois Shepherd, Ronnie Root, Tommy Boyles and Robert Moore, owner of “The Rhinestone Cowboy.” At Norma’s Dusty Roads club, Johnson hung out with Pop Stoneman and Owen McCarthy. Additionally Mike got to meet Shelby Singleton and Paul Martin of Sun Studios while cutting his Globe session. Further, Nashville singer and photog Clifford Abernathy befriended and photographed Mike when he was in town, and soon the bug rubbed off on Mike – from then on he began photo-documenting his musical exploits as much as possible, to the point he has a sizable collection today that has to be seen to be believed.

When his friends at Globe moved well out of Nashville, Mike was referred to Jim Stanton of Champ Recording on Church Street in the heart of Music City. Jim showed Mike “how the Nashville Clique thought and worked,” and at this venue Mike met one of Stanton’s longtime artistes, Frank Hunter the Lonesome Yodeler. With invaluable pointers on the yodeling craft from Hunter, Mike was able to pull off the “Black Yodel No. 1" album (save for ‘Just A Nobody’). Few would disagree that these tunes are among the gold standard of Mike’s work.

Jump ahead to 1987 and Mike, already becoming well known around nearby Virginia haunts like the JV, Sunset Grille, Cowboy Café, Tex-Mex Grille, Royal Lee’s, Tiffany Tavern, and Whitey’s of Arlington; was now able to set up Roughshod Records as his hallmark Traditional Country label. Here we should digress to let Mike Johnson observe, “On my Nashville sessions I never played guitar or any other instrument. [From a conventional point of view] I’m not a musician. I’m a half a guitar strummer, average singer, [but] a very good Yodeller!” To which GIGS & DIGS will add at its own risk, that we take issue with items One and Two of the previous statement, and a hearty “AMEN!” to the third, that is – the yodeling. But Mike has humbly pointed out to his fans that “I Never Really Learned To Play Guitar,” and that’s song #2 on his “Black Yodel No. 1" album.

Yet another worthy accomplishment to which Rodeo Mike can lay claim is the establishment in 1995 of ‘Top-Rail Chatter’ Country Music magazine. This unique publication catered to the best of Independent singers, songwriters and musicians. Notably Top-Rail provided useful info on copyrights, publishing, recording properties, notorious scams, and the ‘music biz’ in general. (It should also be pointed out that Mike and Joe Arnold would regularly single out local figures for the “Top-Rail Award” certificates who had shown a true dedication and understanding of traditional country music. In 2001-02 Chris “Sky” Shaw and Rob “Powerhouse” Johnson of the-then ‘Marked Men’ received such awards, a genuine Honor!)

Into the life of all great artists there is inevitable burden of sorrow and calamity; it may sideline the individual, yet the road beckons and one must soldier on. In 2000 Mike’s beloved mother suffered a serious stroke. By 2002 he found that caring for this blessed lady was a full time calling. Thus Top-Rail Chatter was forced to a halt. When Mike was back working with his trucking and moving trade, more disaster struck in the form of a multiple collapse of his Cervical Vertebrae C2,3,4 and 5. As Mike told us,”I thought I’d had a stroke, I simply could not move.”

Recovery was arduous and slow. To make matters worse, Mike’s dear Mom passed away in 2004. Needless to say, Mike no longer drives the rig, but here’s the good news. By 2005, Mike’s limited mobility, improving through incessant grueling physical rehabilitation and therapy to the point where he could drive a car and at least play guitar and sing in increasingly fluid technique, allowed him to join supportive folklorist Bart Plantenga’s Yodel tour at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City on the 7th of May. (To be fair, you should know Mike rode up there on that occasion by Greyhound Bus!)

Netherlands-born Plantenga, by the way, has authored a most fascinating book, “Yodel-Ay-Eee-Oooo, The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World.” His upcoming is “Yodel In Hi-Fi,” which will include a special chapter on America’s neglected Black Cowboys. In June of 2006 Mike celebrated his 60th birthday, and happily, if you are out and about in nearby Virginia you may very well hear Mike’s full-throated Black Yodel Number One. God willing, Mike Johnson’s welcoming sound should be around for decades to come.

For a full accounting of Mike’s complete career and history of his music, and some significant sound clips from his body of work, please go to http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mikejohnson2 also, you can access Mike’s stuff at www.youtube.com/by1no1

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