Jacob Johnson - Surviving The Dream (2024)

This singer-songwriter/part-time adjunct music professor based in South Carolina plucks the strings on his 4th album in a 20-year career. Now some may think a finely tuned musician with musical expertise & book knowledge may be a little stiff in the originality department. But that’s not always so. Yes, Johnson understands song structure, melody & composition but even his choice of covers shows lots of latitude.

But a careful listen will show that Johnson isn’t exploring typical song topics. He uses his finesse & fluency to shape some rugged adventuresome tunes. “…in a car old enough to have an ashtray.” Yeah, you see there’s a John Prine-type soul here mixed with a Kris Kristofferson tint hidden in those thick musical theory textbooks. You just have to look.
After all, Kristofferson was a road-wearied soul of a songwriter, but he too was a Rhodes

Scholar who mixed in well with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings – all graduates of the University of Texaco. There 8 contributions to the self-produced Surviving The Dream.

Just because someone has a formal compositional & instrumental education doesn’t mean they wouldn’t admire, be influenced by, or feel motivated by what street virtuosos would bring to the music room. Pavarotti sang with Joe Cocker & James Brown because he understood where they were coming from, musically. Beatles producer George Martin respected the ideas that the Fab Four came up with & they couldn’t read music.
There are some clever, if not humorous lyrics & Johnson’s vocals while not distinctive are smooth & perfectly suited for his storytelling. What saves him isn’t succumbing to a folky swirl or achy tone. He has a steady blend that is…that is…probably due to his expertise. Expertise mixed generously with well-charged expressive tunes.