Eric Johanson returns to Aurora for a Sunday night performance of modern blues-rock.
The Louisiana native is back in the States after shows in Spain and Sweden and is bringing his power trio July 14 to The Venue in Aurora for a 7 p.m. show. It’s his third time back.
“It’s a really cool spot, great sound. It’s just a really great room,” he said. “Our show is very spontaneous, very original. I really don’t like to plan out a set list. I like to feel the vibe of the room and the night and go with whatever song feels like it needs to be next. It’s never the same twice and that’s one of the things I love about playing live.”
He’ll play songs from his three studio albums, including several from his 2023 release, “The Deep and the Dirty.”
“The new record to me (has) a lot of different grooves and feels … (and) I’m really enjoying playing it live,” he said. “The album has gotten a good response and it’s really cool to see people continue to discover it. With the type of music, everyone doesn’t discover it all at once. There are always new people getting turned on to it.”
His blues-rock style hasn’t changed much since his debut release 2017’s “Burn It Down.”
“I think I’ve gotten more comfortable landing wherever I land as far as influences and genre. I don’t worry so much about that,” he said. “On the first record, I definitely thought about what audience is this going to go for — is the blues audience going to like this? Because you have to find somewhere to play and some people to introduce your music to.”
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His first record was produced by fellow Louisianan and blues guitarist Tab Benoit, with whom he opened for on the road.
“I saw people were digging the songs … and there wasn’t any need to worry about is this blues or what do you call it? People were just digging the music,” he said. “Over the course of the releases, I feel like I’m getting more comfortable doing whatever sounds cool to me. Whatever inspires or excites me, I go with that.”
He is a fan of heavy rock music as well as old blues. As far as contemporaries go, he’s a big fan of Warren Haynes, Gov’t Mule and Derek Trucks.
“It all blends together. I was a big Metallica fan as a kid and then I went deep in the blues. At some point it all fuses together.”
Growing up in Louisiana, he was surrounded by live music — often blues and jazz. His mother introduced him to artists like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Etta James, but it was when he discovered Jimi Hendrix — and the ones who influenced him — that it all began to click into place.
“The more that I dig into these rock-guitar players that I liked, they would talk about ‘I get that from Albert King’ or whoever and that would lead me back … OK, these things relate to each other and I started listening more to blues music,” he said.
“And as I started to play, I realized it’s really exciting to improvise and be in the moment and come up with something. Also, when you get better at that, you can jam with people. You can say. ‘Let’s play a slow blues in C’ and you know how to do that. You can play with people with a common vocabulary.”
His earliest opportunities for making music came by jamming with older blues musicians.
“Everything I’ve ever done with music since that point has had that element running through it, in one way or another.”
Johanson doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a guitar player, he said. He started learning when he 11 years old — and he’s still learning. He attended the University of New Orleans and studied philosophy, not music.
“They have a great jazz program but at that time, you couldn’t tell me I was going to have to listen to jazz all day,” he said. “I have a respect for it now.”
After college, he knew he didn’t want to do anything else other than play music. He played guitar for other people for a while before finally releasing his own music.
He hopes that Aurora audiences give live blues a chance on a summer night.
“We put our hearts into every performance and we always give it our all, no matter what the size of the crowd is or the size of the room,” he said. “For us, it’s really about connecting with the music, connecting with the audience and making it a special one-time thing for us to share with the crowd. The music definitely has some deep blues elements, it’s got some rock elements, it’s got some New Orleans elements in there.
“I think it crosses some boundaries of genres that maybe don’t get crossed a whole lot. We tend to not have too many people that say they regret coming. Generally, we like to think we give people a good time.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.
Eric Johanson
When: 7 p.m. July 14
Where: The Venue, 21 S. Broadway Ave., Aurora
Tickets: $15-$25
Information: 331-212-8490; themusicvenue.org