OUR FIRST REACTION TO Eric Johnson - Zap (Live in Austin, TX) | COUPLE REACTION (BMC Request)

[@pablozee6359]

I’ve seen Eric play around Austin more times than I can remember. He’s the ultimate tone chaser. He said the best compliment he’s ever received about his tone is that his guitar sounds like a 500 lb violin. 😂

[@tomfabozzi6309]

Great description!

[@tommack9395]

Because it does sound like a 500lb violin - His dirty emphasis mids and yet very clean - the note rings not the dirt - plus the sound of any pick is not prominent, I still say his shimmering clean tones are to die for too.

[@gawful44]

Driving south on cruise control with my buddy, to visit friends, in 1987. Listening to, Tones. Over and over...

[@gregcormier2379]

Eric Johnson’s tone is just impeccable and he plays so fluidly and effortlessly that you can’t help but be in awe. Even though he is known, I don’t think he gets the same hype that his contemporaries do like Steve Vie, and Joe Satrian. Always a pleasure to see Eric play !

[@dolszewski906]

I love Eric Johnson! I first heard Cliffs of Dover on cassette lol 🥰🤗🙏

[@johndboran]

This is from 1988. He's almost an old man now.....check out his acoustic work of late. Just as amazing!!

[@chago4212]

Eric Johnson is one of my favorites guitarrist! I love his violin-like tone and his a master of the pentatonic scale! No doubt about it! Thanks for sharing!!!

[@frankswarbrick7562]

Johnson in special in that he is virtuoso without being flashy. He can play fast, but it never sounds like "shredding". As you say, "tasteful". If you want to hear him play jazz fusion check out his early band Electromagnets.

[@tommack9395]

That's because he played fusion, he also plays some more contemporary pieces too... when you've played jazz It's about the notes and how you use them not how many you fit in a half-measure...

[@kentinatl]

Top 20 guitarist for me...so fun to watch as well....keep em' comin' my rocky mountain friens...all my best,Kent...

[@Olivia-jy9jf]

He's awesome. Wow 👍💕🔆🌺💗👍

[@michelemichele3375]

Very fluid. Great request and reaction. Thanks ✨🤪

[@MrBostechman]

Eric studied with Howard Roberts - an amazing Jazz guitarist who is no longer with is. He is legendary and known for not just tone and expressiveness, but his ability to use feedback and volume to reproduce backwards track that were otherwise only able to be done in the studio (his live version of Hendrix’ Are You Experienced is astounding).

[@wls64]

"Trail of Tears" is another good one. I think my favorite is another instrumental called "Trademark"

[@jadeowenhamblyn4405]

I've learned so much from Eric Johnson, his instructional video from the 90s is GOLD. I love his tone, single coils and high power tube amps. Nice.

[@jimled50jl49]

Hi, yes Eric has the most beautiful guitar tone. His playing just flows, blending soundscapes that just captive the listener. The man has a great voice too that suites his guitar sound perfectly. In one of your unboxing, you have one of my favourite albums of his on cassette - "Venus Isle" It is wonderful !

[@metalmark1214]

Another great guitarist, thanks for the request Eric. This reminds me of early Blues Saraceno, think Satriani but blues. Definitely would recommend Elvis Talking or Friday's Walk by Saraceno. Since you liked this Nick, I think you'd like Blues Saraceno. You and I seem to have similar guitar tastes. Vai, Becker, Satriani, Malmsteen, Johnson, Gilbert, Howe, Taffolla, EVH, MacAlpine and hopefully Saraceno. Also, early Happy Birthday to you both.

[@itsmedrooms6071]

Eric was really regionalized and marginalized so thank you very much for shedding some much needed light on his incredible talent. The outfit, btw, is totally Jimmy H., not Malmsteen or any related classical reference. I think Hendrix might have borrowed it from Sgt. P., but take a look at Jimmy from that era and you will get it 🙂

[@ericmeredith8754]

Thanks for this video! Im in love with the tone of his guitar playing! But in general this was just a great listen! Thanks again!

[@MikeJones-wl6gb]

LOL, Nick was almost speechless during the performance and after. Plini will make you feel the same way.

[@michaelmalone3089]

Wow indeed 👍 love it👍

[@cometogether999]

I see you did some album remodeling, Nice. A great live performance by Eric Johnson. I love it.

[@ssrearadmiral]

E. J. is in my top five of all time....

[@vicprovost2561]

Great choice people, Eric Johnson had the cleanest tone of any guitarist I saw in the past 50 years! Try The Cliffs of Dover and Desert Rose. I saw him open for Buddy Guy, guitar playing at its very best that night, amazing, both of them. Enjoy! 🎸

[@chrisharrison9575]

If you like this, you need to watch him play Zenland from Austin City Limits . It's Incredible! Boogie King is another great one. I saw him a year ago with an old college chum of mine from 1971. What a great night

[@michaelescareno7048]

Great that you reacted to EJ!!!

[@rudolfbecker4313]

Yes, I recognized it immediately, it's on the album Tones, which I bought in 1986. Nice piece of music, I like the whole album, somehow timeless. Interesting to see you watch it so concentrated, other than just listening and making faces to the music, what you usually do :-)

[@stretchgilbert]

That tone though

[@patrickangell5387]

Let's not forget about Tommy Taylor in the back keeping the beat and Kyle Brock blazing on the bass.

[@ghfdt368]

Eric is definately a virtuoso. He is one of the all time greats on electric guitar but he is also a very serious acoustic guitar player aswell and a very skilled pianist, in fact the reason he plays guitar chords the way he does is due to him starting out playing piano as his first instrument but incorperated the piano chord sounds to the guitar since he wanted to retain that open beautiful sound. You can see videos of him on youtube playing piano to a high level and in a his records he plays very complex and intricate blues and country style fingerpicking on acoustic, song for george is a good example of this. Then to top it all off he has a really good voice too!

[@greybeard2280]

A brilliant composer and multi instrument genius, had nothing but the best chances any up and coming artists could hope for. When you have people like Clapton, Atkins, Bloomfield, and SRV catching your eye it's pretty much set in stone. This dude's improvisational and bounce picking techniques are crazy good. Try "Cliffs of Dover" pretty good track to show off his extraordinary abilities. Great pick here, he's a monster on his 1954 Strat or 1964 stop-tailed Gibson ES-335. With these beautiful pieces of musical history no wonder he flies!

[@jonanderson8795]

Never heard this guy before.Reminds me of Jeff Beck.Good stuff

[@scottstevens7639]

Love the new wave haircut he was sporting! He would fit right in with ‘A Flock of Seagulls’… I think what you’re trying to articulate about his playing is that Eric has his own style. Every notable guitarist (or musician for that matter) has their own unique style. What separates the great from the mediocre is how much time and effort they’ve put into developing that style. Mr. Johnson has obviously invested a lot of each. This live recording was taken from a TV show called “Austin City Limits” around the time of his album “Tones”, which has a wealth of great tunes and is my personal fave album of his. “Austin City Limits” is a long running live music showcase on PBS. IMHO, it is the gold standard as far as showcasing live music. If you have the time (and curiosity), it might be of great interest to you to take a deep dive into the back catalogue of this show. There are SO MANY great artists that have been showcased there, it’s not even funny…

[@grega8586]

A favorite of his is East Wes... very cool groove.

[@leehanson1416]

EJ is my favorite guitar player. I'm from Texas, and I haven't met Eric, but I'm told he's as nice and humble as they come. That same video with him in the High School band uniform from Austin City Limits has a song called "Western Flyer", which is one of my favorites, and not on any album.

[@kevinvirnelson7868]

Hey guys,check out "Cliffs of Dover" from that same concert!

[@permanentwaves4621]

Thats at Austin City Limits- very hard to get tickets for shows for tapings of concerts. Ive been there once. Its a lot smaller than it looks.

[@avantprog6902]

Yeah when we first heard Eric it brought Steve Morse to mind.

[@sergenaud731]

"Cliffs of dover" of Eric is his best tune.... ---- And if you do know DANNY GATTON... I saw him at the Montreal blues festival, a outside show, it was absolutely amazing... He was a very GREAT guitarist.... Maybe the best one....

[@kevinhodgson2990]

I last saw EJ in '18 with my son at the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum). He played entirely on acoustic guitars with 4 or 5 songs he did on piano. I kinda missed his electric guitar but it was a great concert nonetheless.

[@avantprog6902]

Both Eric and Steve use a lot of Major pentatonics which comes from the country tradition.

[@rodolfobassi4655]

Cuando la guitarra habla para que hacer un comentario, simplemente me dejó sin palabras.., chicos pongan subtitulos, saludos desde Argentina

[@NicknLex]

Hola. Debería de tener subtítulos el video. Vamos a ver porque no salen.

[@rodolfobassi4655]

@@NicknLex voy a tener que estudiar inglés 😂

[@sergenaud731]

And "Maggot brain" from Funkadelic is also a VERY VERY guitar tune... almost dangerous on cannabis effet... WOWWWWWWWWW.

[@kevinmarsh8922]

You might "Come Dancing" with Jeff Beck and I, if you don't have "Led Boots". Wired is the album, as well as the feeling.

[@grega8586]

May I suggest (again) that you check out some Be Bop Deluxe? I think you'll like Bill Nelson's guitar playing. Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape from their Live! In The Air Age album is my favorite, followed closely by Shine from the same album.

[@avantprog6902]

Nick, you should appreciate this, what distinguishes Both Eric and Steve are that they flat pick. They don't chop with the pick. That gives them that tone.

[@markd5067]

I try not to watch Eric too much. He makes me want to throw my guitars away....

[@pablojavierjimenez]

the word that you try to find is "elegant" :P

[@IANSPA]

The Tone Ranger

[@DGB1489]

That guitar is connected to a cloud...

[@thebomontellano4996]

Check out Guthrie Govan's Waves live. Mind blowing.

[@frankgidney9474]

Try Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, I know you've done Frank,but try his early stuff with his band Mahogany Rush, Strange Universe Album, it's his 2 album,I believe he was 17, I know jhis first album he was 16, also a great album, Mazoom. I've seen him many times always great, seen him the first time when I was 17, I'm 69 now . Frank rocks,dig deep,many albums,16 I believe. Love you guys, you know your stuff,keep on Rockin

[@bio-hazard221]

Hey y'all listening to any more tool? Was just curious Something for the upcoming spooky season check out skynd- Richard Ramirez

[@billyf2833]

He makes the guitar just flat out talk to you. It's telling you something. He doesn't waste a note. Notice the first and last notes of a run. They are like Capital letters and punctuation marks. Imo

[@SteveMavronis]

Photon!

[@billhawkins1236]

He makes it look effortless, it's not!🤣👍

[@marcpetak114]

Very stylistic in his own blues character. Another one that stands alone in their style is Jeff Beck. No one sounds like Jeff Beck. Or, Eric Johnson. They stand alone in genre's.

[@toddhisattva]

The "outfit" is a Lanier High School Band uniform. That's the school featured in the documentary "Dazed and Confused."

[@LeonelFrancoo97]

No tiene subtitulos 😔 pero la música, una locura 💥🔥

[@NicknLex]

Que raro porque si los agregamos. Vamos a ver qué pasó

[@LeonelFrancoo97]

Si aparecen pero en inglés 🙌🏼

[@williamosborne6866]

Check Eric doing a cover of "all Along The Watchtower" - incredible: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6nRnWSHfamNbrs

[@jollyrodgers7272]

Live - From The Eighties?! It's not LIVE, but rather a RECORDING of a Live performance from way back in the eighties. You ever react to Jaco Pastorius? He's deceased now, but recorded some stuff Live, before he died.

[@jollyrodgers7272]

that same performance he played Cliffs Of Dover, which I think is more WOW than that.

[@mstewart109]

Joe Bonamassa is amazing blues. Sings too!! Stevie Ray Vaughan" voodoo child" or "texas flood" Stevie was in a world of guitar performance level like no other. RIP Stevie Ray ( plane crash)

[@mvunit3]

@@mstewart109 Eric Johnson sings as well, and has covered many Hendrix tracks too :). Checkout N&L reaction to "Desert Rose".

[@markd5067]

Recorded version is better....

[@mvunit3]

Well, My 2nd request by _default_ (either our brainwaves Nick with Ark, and "Eric" knowing about all the appearances of Johnson on ACL as well)! His performances on Austin City Limits are stellar, astounding and well recorded. "Zap" was the 1st time hearing him for me, and bought the album as soon as I heard it ("Tones" 1986). I also linked an ACL performance by EJ a few months back (same show I see, as he is wearing the "School Band" Jacket), but you definitely need to see the WHOLE show. He is (and the band) an amazing musician, and that smoooooth tone is soo good :). Looking it up, this was also released as an album (in 2005) and was an ACL performance from "1988", _before_ the release of "Ah Via Musicom" in 1990 (he was 34 at that time), so the tracks that made it to ACL were in the works for that album (which "Cliffs of Dover" was on) and would bring him to stardom. The Line-up . . . Eric Johnson - vocals, lead guitar Kyle Brock - bass guitar Tommy Taylor - drums Eric has that ability to sound like 2 guitarists, like Alex Lifeson, doing leads, fills and rhythm seemingly at the same time. I love how he does the pinch or tap-harmonics (@ 4:27), and switches to a different pedal box, even if it's just for 1 or a few notes. He is so damn quick and subtle with all the fills and sounds :). Great soloing from Kyle Brock as well! I thought you guys were gonna' play the last track "Are You Experienced" from Hendrix :D. As Wiki says, which I agree (for once :p): He plays many musical genres, including rock, blues, jazz fusion, soul, folk, new-age, classical, and country. And he has a great smooth soulful Vocal style as well (listen to or maybe react to 2 tracks; "Bristol Shore" or "40 Mile Town"). Edit: Oops! You heard his voice on the "Desert Rose" Reaction ;). I've seen Eric 3 times, would love to see him again.

[@vicprovost2561]

He was amazing on ACL, they need to watch it, killer! 🎸