Blues Rock Guitar Hero Eric Johanson To Release ‘Live In Mississippi’
New Orleans-based blues rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Johanson announces the release of his live album ‘Live In Mississippi’ out March 21, 2025 via Ruf Records. A follow up to his last album ‘The Deep and The Dirty’, Johanson reveals his virtuosity on guitar and command of his streamlined vocals and songwriting in this collection of live tunes from the stage of the Ground Zero Club in Biloxi, Mississippi.
As anyone with their finger on the pulse of modern rock and blues surely knows, Johanson is among a handful of artists dragging these musical forms in vital new directions.
“A lot has happened since The Deep And The Dirty,” Eric says. “It was #1 on Billboard and we took the music overseas for the first time, performing in ten countries through Europe, as well as all across the US. It’s been great to meet people from so many walks of life who are digging the music. This record captures us after a year of touring in support of The Deep And The Dirty and has some of the songs we most enjoyed playing each night.”
From the thundering gallop of “Undertow” to the instinctive slide-blues of “Just Like New”, Johanson’s power trio moves with a rare musical telepathy. “Galaxy Girl” packs a brittle sting – the band dropping out in the verses to give Johanson’s vocal full rein – while the bottleneck licks of that sounds both old as the hills and contemporary at the same time.
It builds to a climax with “Don’t Hold Back’s” moody strut, the bandleader’s solo right on the brink of anarchy – and that’s exactly how he likes it. “I’m really thrilled with how Live In Mississippi turned out,” says Johanson. “The great thing about making a live record is you just play your heart out at the show, and the record captures where you are at that moment in your life. You don’t have a chance to overthink or re-do anything – or at least you shouldn’t. I just focus on sharing an experience with the people in the room, and I think the listener at home can feel that…”
Listen to “Galaxy Girl” HERE
Track Listing
Nowhere To Go 04:50
Undertow 04:17
Just Like New 05:23
Yellow Moon 04:35
Galaxy Girl 04:04
I Walk On Guilded Splinters 06:02
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues 02:32
Familiar Sound 04:16
Changes The Universe 05:30
Don’t Hold Back 05:01
Born in Alexandria, Louisiana, Eric Johanson received his first guitar at five and became a self-taught prodigy. By his teens, he was a staple at regional blues gigs, often joining much older musicians on stage from New Orleans to Memphis’ Beale Street. Meanwhile, his tastes expanded to include rock acts like Tool, Soundgarden, and Nine Inch Nails, influences which surfaced when Johanson began writing his own songs and experimenting with everything from rock & roll to beat-driven electronic music. Living in New Zealand for four years broadened his horizons even further. And by the time Johanson resettled in New Orleans during the 2010s, he’d developed a style of music that unapologetically encompassed all his influences. Solo albums like 2017’s Burn It Down produced by Tab Benoit, introduced that sound to a larger audience, while sideman work for acts like Cyril Neville (The Neville Brothers) kept his guitar chops sharp.
Eric Johanson website
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