Less is more: Jacob Johnson talks about Jessica and more

Less is more: Jacob Johnson talks about Jessica and more

24 June 2024

You said you chose to cover “Jessica” because you feel that if your partner has the same name as a song, you have to learn it and serenade them. Is that the real reason you chose the song?

Jacob Johnson: I’m not saying this entirely seriously, but it’s basically true. As great as the song is, I would never have chosen it if my wife hadn’t urged me to. The album version and the Grammy-winning live versions are so typical that it never occurred to me that I might have something else to contribute to the discussion. But to impress my then-girlfriend and now-wife, I experimented with it in different ways until I found a way to take it in a different direction. I played a version of it at our wedding a few years ago, and when I was working on the songs for my new album, I felt like I should revisit it, so I did.

You also managed to take the song in a wonderfully understated direction considering how lively the original is. How difficult was it to maintain the melody at the expense of the song’s more obvious qualities?

Jacob Johnson: Thank you. Yes, there are a lot of little parts in “Jessica” that make it “Jessica”, you know what I mean? I think the drive of the band is what we associate with the song, so hopefully it will slow down to focus on the different melodies and sections to show the song from a different angle. I was very surprised though when we started using bass and drums with Jack Ryan And Stephen Campbell (from The Marcus King Band), how much the song was still “moving” for lack of a better word. We slowed down the tempo and the feel, but it still has momentum. It still feels like movement.

As in the original, the melody is played by all the players and not just one instrument. Can you tell me about the arrangement process and the other players involved in creating the song?

Jacob Johnson: Yes! This is what can overwhelm the organization. Chuck Leavellwho plays piano on the original recording, has an album called Southern landscape where he plays an arrangement of it on the piano. That really helped me understand the different sections because I could hear it all played on one instrument. That kind of brought it back down to earth and made it a bit more manageable. Once I had the basic sections worked out for the guitar, I took them to Jack and Stephen and they knew exactly what to do with them.

In particular, the key change that comes out of Stephen’s bass solo is a cool moment in my opinion. If I had led with my guitar, it would have been too “direct.” But when the bass does it out of the solo, it creates that cool, subtle dynamic you’re talking about. Mickey Raphael has recorded the harmonica tracks from his home in Nashvillebut after talking about it on the phone, we both agreed that we wanted to hear the harmonica play that main theme and not just a solo. He has such a beautiful style of playing the harmonica that really made the melody shine in a new way.

For people who don’t know your work, how representative is Jessica of your music as a whole?

Jacob Johnson: I consider myself a live performer and showman. Someone once described me as someone who has “a lot of cheap tricks and a lot of very expensive tricks” and I think that sums up my style pretty well! What I’m saying is that I find this track more subtle and less flashy than a lot of my music. I definitely resort to guitar pyrotechnics in concerts but all of that would have gotten in the way of this song. So it’s a little different but I think if people like guitar based music from a southern perspective they’ll like my other music too.

They have covered some other, quite unusual songs, including a melody from Mary Poppins. How do you choose which songs to cover and what do you notice about them?

Jacob Johnson: To be honest, I don’t think about it much. I play whatever comes to mind. I might start playing around with something, and if it really captures my imagination, I’ll keep going with it. I’ve loved those Mary Poppins songs since I was a kid. A song that romanticizes the lonely, dark, but magical world of a chimney sweep somehow feels like it could have been written about a traveling guitar player, right?

And what happens now and what does the immediate future look like for you?

Jacob Johnson: I’m doing a bit of touring in the summer and fall; I have an album ready that I’ll release when I have some more money, hopefully in October or November. I also teach guitar at North Greenville University In SCthat keeps me busy during the week. I am also finishing my first semester Berklee online, so I have a long way to go!

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.

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