Raised an hour drive from New Orleans in Mississippi, a state that has produced the very core of American music, Johnson grew up with great respect for the blues, gospel, and country sound that has defined the area's artistic heritage. Joe's own family has contributed to that great legacy. His Grandfather, the noted early Nashville Country artist B.J. "the D.J." Johnson, was a recording engineer, disc jockey, and Grand Ole Opry performer and many in his family were well known Gospel performers.
Joe began his career in the late 90’s touring around Mississippi before settling for a while in the music-rich city of Hattiesburg, playing house parties and bars like The Thirsty Hippo, T Bone Records, and Gus' Cafe alongside some of the greats in the scene including Cary Hudson, Chance Fisher, Thomas Jackson, Mark Mann, This Orange Four, and countless others.
Since 2004 Joe has called the westside of Colorado Springs home, spending his first seven years fronting the rock and roll band "Creating a Newsense", in the process building an avid cult fanbase while releasing four albums and playing hundreds of shows on the road and close to home while helping to establish the foundation of what is now a burgeoning Colorado Springs music community.
In 2011 Joe released his debut solo effort "A Time To Dance" on Pueblo, Colorado-based Blank Tape Records. It was a stark departure from his previous work, a minimalist acoustic folk album recorded on reel to reel tape with songs of hope, despair, longing, and loss. The album won him many new fans while also introducing some longtime listeners to a softer and more story-based side of his work. In 2013 Joe recorded his second offering on Blank Tape with a band featuring some of the best players in Southern Colorado's folk and Americana music scene. "New West Sound" mixes saloon country and bluegrass gospel with dirty blues rock and lonesome ballads, all while maintaining Joe’s typical thread of lyricism and storytelling. Following the dissolution of Blank Tape Records, Joe returned to recording and releasing music independently with the 2015 single “The Champ’s Last Round” and after a period of heavy touring, the 2017 EP “St. Christopher”. In 2018 Joe unleashed his most ambitious effort to date with the album “Morgantown”. Named for the community where he grew up and where many in his family still call home, the country and blues themed album features his band along with several special guests including Mississippi Hill Country Blues legend Kenny Brown as well as Colorado blues ace Grant Sabin playing songs about life on the road and themes of home, being there and being away. The album was followed by a three month tour of the country, both met with tremendously positive response. After the tour ended, Joe took some well earned time off the road, accepting a position as the songwriting mentor at the Colorado Springs Conservatory of Music. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Joe began work on new material he recorded at home in isolation for his next full length album. Before releasing that work, he produced four singles, one for each season, together known as “The Pandemic Collection”. This set of songs, each released in 2020, includes “On and On It Goes”, The Year of the Horse”, “Hold On”, and “The Death of Mary and St. Peter” which features a bonus B Side version performed by Grant Sabin. Finally in late 2021 Joe released his latest effort, the isolation recordings entitled “Dark Horse Pale Rider”. By far his most personal and intimate work, “Dark Horse Pale Rider” has garnered great excitement by fans old and new and features nine songs that delve deeply into the feelings of loneliness and despair that defined too many lives over the preceding months. It also features a stanza of the Gospel standard “Amazing Grace” sung with his cousin and aunt that reveals the family harmonies Joe grew up singing in South Mississippi all those years ago. “Dark Horse Pale Rider” is available now on vinyl and streaming worldwide. You can see Joe perform his vast catalogue of diverse material in solo performances as well as shows featuring one of his two regular bands, the roots themed Country Store Band and rock and roll centric ensemble The Wildfire. He also occasionally performs with old pals Creating a Newsense as well as their offshoot project Saint Dewey’s Good Time Revival.
Outside of his own endeavors, Joe’s electric guitar work with Grant Sabin & The Juke Joint Highball can be heard on the album "Bourbon & Milk", which the group released in 2017, as well as in live performances by the band. He is an occasional collaborator with several artists in Colorado and across the country and he co hosts the live stream show “5th Sunday Sing” on Facebook and YouTube with fellow songwriter Brian Griffing. His music has been featured in the documentary "A Nickle and A Nail" and in the film "Making a Killing" and has been sampled and covered by artists across America as well as Europe and Australia.
Joe has a genuine dedication to his family and community and a real connection to his fans the world over.