#thestateroom

One of the most outstanding instrumentalists in rock over the past 40 years, Texas guitarist Eric Johnson was already a legend before he recorded his first album. By the early 1980s, many celebrated guitarists were singing the praises of this skinny kid from Austin with the mind-melting chops. Comparisons were made to such guitar heroes as Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix and when he joined the ‘70s Austin fusion band Electromagnetsthey were being hailed as “the Mahavishnu Orchestra of Texas”. With the release of his highly-anticipated 1986 solo debut album Tones, the underground guitar legend finally emerged onto the scene fully-formed. It landed him on the cover of Guitar Playermagazine, which hailed the album as a “majestic debut”, and earned him his first Grammy nomination for the song “Zap”. With the release of his follow up album, 1990’s platinum-selling Ah Via Musicom, which contained the Grammy Award winning song “Cliffs of Dover”, Eric Johnson became a bona fide international guitar phenomenon.The New Age Music Guideonce opined that “Eric Johnson plays guitar the way Michelangelo painted ceilings: with a colorful vibrancy that’s more real than life”while Rolling Stoneincluded him in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of the 21st century. A dynamic singer as well as an incredibly gifted guitarist, a pianist and a prolific songwriter, Eric has been featured on the cover of countless guitar magazines around the world while also racking up critical accolades along the way.Since 1986 Eric has released seventeen albums, in addition to albums with other artists such as Eclecticwith jazz guitarist Mike Stern, and the platinum-selling G3 Livewith Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Eric has received eight Grammy nominations along with numerous other recognitions, awards and wins in various polls and magazines. Among Johnson’s many accolades are a GRAMMY award in 1992 for “Cliffs of Dover”as Best Rock Instrumental Performance, lifetime induction into the Guitar PlayerGallery of Greats, and his listing among the “100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century”by Musicianmagazine. In his hometown of Austin Texas, a city full of guitarists, the readers of the Austin Chroniclevoted Eric Johnson the city’s “Best Electric Guitarist”and “Best Acoustic Guitarist”in their yearly poll year after year. They also named him “Electric Guitarist of the Decade”and one of the top five “Musicians of the Decade”. In February 2024 Eric was honored with induction into the Texas Heritage Songwriters AssociationHall of Fame. 2023 found Eric on his ‘Treasure Tour’, 67 US dates that were split between a Spring and a Fall tour. In January and February 2024 Eric joined the ‘G3 Reunion Tour’with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and the resulting new live album from the tour will be released in January 2025. In August 2024 he heads out for a run of dates in the north and northeast including the Backroads Blues Festival in New York. In September and October 2024 Eric was a featured performer on the ‘Experience Hendrix 2024 Tour’, crossing the country from Washington state to Florida, and then rejoined in March and April 2025 for the ‘Experience Hendrix 2025 Tour’throughout the east and northeast USA and Canada.Over the course of more than four decades, Eric Johnson has been traveling on a prolific odyssey. Along the way, his creations have cross-pollinated the various musical genres which include rock, blues, jazz, fusion, soul, folk, new-age, classical, and even country. Inevitably EJ says it best himself in sharing that regardless of the genre “It really boils down to the music and the song at the end of the day”, he explains.“The most important thing for me is to grow musically and make a more expansive and meaningful artistic statement with every new project”.

“Colorado-based honky tonk band Sugar Britches pay homage to one of America’s favorite singer-songwriters, John Prine, with the full Sugar Britches band singing and playing Prine’s songs and bringing to light his wit, wisdom, poetry and endless humor.”

Sugar Britches is a blend of mischievous high-brow honky-tonk with eclectic instrumental accompaniment and clever lyrics, written by Brian Johanson and performed by a cavalcade of characters. Combining good ‘ol country heartache along with snarky folksy wit, Sugar Britches has been playing non-stop throughout Colorado and the great West in bars, parking lots, weddings, bat mitzvahs, rodeos, amphitheaters and regular theaters since 2017. 

Sugar Britches have received critical acclaim and plain old criticism. They have opened up for many national touring artists, including Reckless Kelly, Wynonna Judd & the Big Noise, Hannah Dasher, Jaime Wyatt, Big Richard, Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters, Pokey LaFarge, Corb Lund, The Reverend Horton Heat and Jason Eady. 

The Band features Brian Johanson on lead vocals and guitar, Lance Ruby on lead electric guitar, AJ Knight on drums, Zee Crain on fiddle and Ori Bitton on upright bass and a rotating cast of amazing guest musicians.

Check out a review of the show here!