Davey Johnstone & John Jorgenson
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DAVEY JOHNSTONE & JOHN JORGENSON 1999 By James Jensen (for Acoustic Music Resource) What do the guitarists in Elton John's band do between gigs when they are traveling the world playing to sold out stadiums of screaming fans? In the case of long-time bandleader and sometimes songwriter (I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues) Davey Johnstone, and more recent additional axe master extraordinaire (three time winner of CMA's guitarist of the year with The Desert Rose Band, and accolades too many to mention with The Hellecasters) John Jorgenson, you borrow a minidisc recorder from Sony Electronics and write and record an all acoustic instrumental guitar duo CD called "Groovemasters Vol. 2...Crop Circles." Aside from his well noted work with Elton John, Johnstone has made an exceptional name for himself as a player who can add that special something to a song, and he has been called on to do that by artists as diverse as Stevie Nicks, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf and Jimmy Webb. Jorgenson's talent for creating something a little fresh and different in the studio can be found on records from folks as diverse as Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, and Bonnie Raitt. Written on world tour with Elton John, produced and recorded by Elton's keyboard ace Guy Babylon, "Crop Circles" finds these two artists known for adding that special color to others work attacking their own blank canvas with everything from delicate brush strokes to paint bombs. We caught up with them between American and European tours at a photo shoot, and chatted with them individually and then together. AM: Was your first guitar an acoustic? Davey Johnstone: Definitely, my sister got me one when I was eleven years old. I had been playing viola at school since I was seven and I had begun playing it like it was a guitar so my sister thought she might as well get me one. It wasn't very good, and year later I got a brilliant little electric guitar with one pickup called a Broadway, and I loved it. Like all the guitar loving kids I had been drooling over the powder pink strat in the window at the music shop but that wasn't in the budget. I had a band at school called The Trolls and we played Beatles and Stones stuff. When I was about 14 or 15, I decided the acoustic guitar was where it was at and got deeper into it. AM: What were you playing at that point? Davey: I got a Harmony acoustic and very shortly after was into really traditional music and players like Bert Jansch and Davey Graham. I was also really hooked by Irish Music like The Dubliners and Chieftans, and got a tenor banjo and mandolin. One of my mentors was an Scottish singer-songwriter named Archie Fisher who had a big influence on most of the players from my era. Archie also played sitar, so I had to order one from Bombay and it arrived a year later in a Dracula sized coffin at the docks. It seemed like every couple of months I was adding some other stringed instrument to my collection. I didn't really get back into the electric guitar until I was asked to join a group called Magna Carta when I was about eighteen. They were being produced by Gus Dudgeon, who was also producing a guy named Elton John. Even though I was very much into folk , I was always a frustrated Rocker. Gus asked me to play on a poetry album which Bernie Taupin was doing, an all acoustic production that Bernie would speak his lyrics over. It seems that Bernie had mentioned me to Elton and I was asked to play on one of their sessions on a song called "Madman Across The Water". AM: That song was the start of your relationship with Elton and you ended up playing acoustic on that track didn't you? Davey: Yes, they had tried the track with Michael Chapman, and Mick Ronson, and it never came off for some reason. Elton was telling Gus what he was going for and I was mentioned. I instantly got on very well with Elton and came up with a different part for the song which Elton loved, and they had me work on "Tiny Dancer", "Levon" as well as playing mandolin and sitar on "Holiday Inn". AM: Your acoustic playing on "Hercules" from the "Honkey Chateau" album was very cool, and I could never quite figure it out... Davey: (Laughing) That's because it is in open G tuning, and I have just been teaching it to John as Elton wants to add it to the next tour. It has been about fifteen years since we have done it live so it will be great fun. AM: Did your use of open tunings come from your experience in the folk days? Davey: Definitely, and players like John Martyn who was a friend of mine as well as The Incredible String Band. John actually taught me that tuning as it was used on the song "The First Girl I Loved" by the Incredible String band. It isn't the standard open G (DGDGBD) or like Keith Richards does (removing the sixth string altogether) I also lower the 6th string to G. With both strings tuned to G you get this really modal, droning thing happening which is really cool. On "Rocket Man" I used an open Bb Tuning which is really effective. Lenny Kravitz was picking my brain last week about it and wondering how I got it so ringing in that strange key, and I told him I cheated by using an open tuning. I should say it isn't quite cheating because you have to come up with all the new chord shapes that can be a bit bizarre and different. AM: Did you always flatpick? because many of the players mentioned were fabulous fingerpickers. Davey: Absolutely, I was finger-picking "Angie" and Bert Jansch's "Needle Of Death". There was a fabulous EP by Bert Jansch with those tunes and a brilliant little piece called "Running From Home" and I was really into it. Now I mainly use my pick and second and third finger to get more of a bottom end happening. For a while I was using fingerpicks but you would get one caught in the strings and it was extremely embarrassing. AM: Around the time of "Captain Fantastic" you got to play more acoustic instruments. Davey: Yeah, that's true. AM: Was it Elton , the producer, or you, who would choose the type of direction for your parts and whether it would be acoustic or electric? Davey: 99% of the time it would be myself, because being the only guitar player in the group I would be listening to Elton writing the songs and thinking about what to play that would be good for it. It would usually be left up to me, sometimes if I played electric Gus might suggest a couple of distant acoustic bits in the background or something. AM: So Elton writes most of his songs in the studio? Davey: Absolutely..... all of it. He comes in with the lyrics, and if he doesn't have it in twenty minutes he throws it out and tries another one. I have seen him literally sit down and run through a lyric one time and write the song! He did that with a song we wrote together called "Cajun Songbird" from the Blue Moves album. I played him this little finger-picking acoustic piece and he went "that's beautiful ...wait a minute" and he pulled out a sheet of lyrics and said "play it again" which I did, he sang the lyrics, and literary that was it! It is a wonderful little song about Edith Piaf. That is very much the way he writes...very quickly. AM: What makes you pick up an acoustic or electric guitar, or mandolin when he is writing? Davey: I tend to go with my first instincts, and sometimes your wrong, but usually your first instincts are the best ones. That is also why I prefer when we record in the studio as a band, which we usually get in a couple of takes, instead of playing the take twenty times by myself in a booth and losing the feel. AM: So many players write riffs disguised as songs which are totally forgettable, and you have made a career augmenting the songs of Elton John, and in the process come up with some unforgettably classic riffs. Davey: It's funny, the nice thing was being the only guitar player in that situation, Elton would sometimes say to me "I really hear this as being a guitar song..can you come up with something?". For "The Bitch Is Back" he said play something like "diga diga diga diga diga diga diga diga bam bam bam bam" ... which is what I did! AM: So in many cases your expressing, or translating what he hears in his head? Davey: Oh yeah, he is a big guitar fan, he just has no clue. I have tried teaching him a few chords and it is really funny because he is such a brilliant piano player and actually played acoustic guitar on stage one tour about ten years ago and it was really hilarious. The giant Mohawk wig, sparkly jacket, and Ovation guitar just didn't make it. AM: Have their been many times when you felt the best thing you could do for a track was to lay out? Davey: Yes, definitely.