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| Josephine Johnson performing at Westhaven Center for the Arts November 13th 2015 |
Philosophers of the 1800s were accustomed to seeing
everything in threes—Hegel and Marx come to mind with their triad of thesis,
antithesis, and synthesis. We are far from the reductive analyses of two
hundred years ago, but the progression of folk music from the national
classical/traditional folk music of the 1800s, through the contemporary folk
music of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell during the 60s
and 70s, to our present-day post-folk music era, sure seems to fit this
three-fold movement of musical styles. If traditional folk music was national
in scope, while 60s folk was international—current post-folk singing and song
writing integrates the local with the global, lifting up a hybrid of folk
themes and musical structures with a global reach.
No one better exemplifies post-folk music than our very own
Josephine Johnson whose haunting and vivid lyrics and Thelonious Monk-like minimalist
changes and rhythm shifts delight the musical soul. We are thrilled that she is
our new Musician-in-Residence at Westhaven Center for the Arts. Her work aligns
with our vision of bringing innovative art and music to the foreground in
Humboldt County. Josephine is currently on tour along the Central and Southern
California coast extending the experience of her creative energy into much of
California. Her singles: RoyGbiv—named
after the acronym of rainbow hues (red, orange, green…) and Let it All Out are both paeans to emotional
expression. As Josephine voices each rainbow color, the listener is transported
through a roller coaster of feelings, only to emerge triumphant as she or he
acknowledges the complexity of emotional experience. Let it All Out encourages us to release pent up emotions by gently
nudging us into a catharsis of fear, loneliness and despair. Much of Josephine
Johnson’s lyrical work is akin to that of the Archaic Greek poets, like Sappho,
whose poetry always was recited and sung to music. Her lyrics, melodies and
rhythmic structures point to an idealized directness of emotional energy and
lead us to a tranquil resolution of deep yearnings and angst from the
perspective of contemporary life in the 21st century. Her new
project of recording sounds from Humboldt County barns and composing riffs to
the their lonely cries and mutterings promises to be an intricate foray into
post-minimalist music; a crossroads where the post-folk dances with the
post-minimal.
