Josephine Johnson and the Post-Folk: Innovation at Westhaven

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 21^st 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.