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I thought it was by Eric Johnson. But it turned out it was by Eric JOHANSON!

I’m a big fan of Eric Johnson. An astounding guitar player sans flashy personality who had a moment of mainstream fame and then disappeared. You see he was promoted by Hale Milgrim when he ran Capitol Records, and when Hale got blown out Eric had no champion. This is important, go with the team that believes in you, needs you, not the one with the most famous name, with the most success.

And so thrilled with this version of “Oh I Wept” I started searching for more. I’m one of the few who appreciates Eric Johnson’s vocals, as apart from his skill on the guitar, and I wanted more of this, was hungry for more of this, was eager for more of this. And I started searching Eric Johnson albums looking for this track and could not find it. So I went back to Qobuz, where I discovered this take of the Free song, and that’s when I looked closer and realized it was Eric Johanson, the type is so small on the phone…

So “Oh I Wept” is from the Free album “Fire and Water.”

“Must have made you their daughter

You’ve got what it takes to make a poor man’s heart break”

That’s the opening track, the title cut of “Fire and Water.”

Although it was released in June, I didn’t buy the album until September, just after I’d started my first semester at college. I went down to the Vermont Book Shop and overpaid for an LP that ultimately disappointed me. I learned there was a guitar break in “All Right Now” that I was unaware of, but this thirty five minute album, a veritable EP by today’s standards, was lacking. There was the one stellar cut, but nothing close to it on the rest of the record. But having paid for it, I listened to it. But I never changed my opinion. Until maybe now.

They don’t make records like this anymore, as in there isn’t much on it. And it’s authentic, no synthesizers and maybe that’s why I was disappointed, the album seemed underproduced, not muddy like the earlier stuff from the sixties, yet somehow not as big as the breakthrough records of the time.

The second side opened with “Mr. Big.” Which was my second favorite cut on the LP, it too existed in an arid landscape, but when Paul Rodgers sang the chorus, MR BIG!, it had an impact, a gravitas that superseded what came before.

And there was the moody final song on the first side, “Heavy Load,” akin to what Rodgers ended up doing with Bad Company, with an intimacy that exuded authenticity.

And the second song on the first side was “Oh I Wept.” But I didn’t really get into it until I heard it play after “All Right Now” on the “Molten Gold: Anthology” two CD package. Funny, you expect less from albums like this. They’re peeks into what once was, historical ventures, you’re raiding the lost ark, you’re assumed to be interested, a fan, you’re looking for roots as well as hidden gems. And three cuts later comes “The Stealer,” a hit that wasn’t, even for Bob Seger when he recorded it for Warner Brothers on a now unavailable album, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hit the spot when you hear it, especially now, decades later. If I wanted to introduce someone to the greatness of Paul Kossoff I’d start with “The Stealer,” a tour-de-force, a track too good, too singular to be a hit on AM in an era where FM was playing more American music and becoming more codified. Bottom line, I’d always let the CD play through until “The Stealer” and that’s how I became enamored of “Oh I Wept.”

“Oh I wept

For days

Filled my eyes

With silly tears”

Men mourn personally. A woman experiences heartbreak and she calls her friends, who circle around her, soothe her, whereas a man might not even tell anybody, never mind get succor.

“I take my seat on the train

And let the sun come melt my pain

Come tomorrow I’ll be far away

In the sunshine of another day”

That’s the instinct, to run away, to lick your wounds, at least emotionally, but physically is even better. And let’s not forget, this was pre-cellphone. Even pre-answering machine. As much as you wanted to sit at home and wait for the phone to ring, you knew if you left home you were unreachable, out in a world no bigger than today, but completely unconnected, so it felt incredibly large, you could reinvent yourself if you just got away from your trappings.

“Oh I Wept” is subtle and personal. Once again, there’s not much on it, but it serves the underlying song, the message. He’s weeping personally, and that’s how the song sounds. And somehow on Sunday I needed to hear it, I don’t know why, and that’s when I pulled it up on my phone and saw the version by Eric Johnson, er, Johanson.

Although there’s so little on the Free take, it’s clear it’s a band. You don’t think Paul Rodgers is playing the guitar, never mind the drums, no, you can see a combo in your mind, whereas the Eric Johanson version is singular, it’s clear it’s only one person.

And the Eric Johanson version is the same, yet it’s different. You can hear the individual strings being strummed, the guitar is not a wash, anything but. And the vocal… No one can be as great as Paul Rodgers, but this guy isn’t just going through the motions, he’s feeling the song too. And the end product being rougher its edges catch you, you want to hear it to the end, and then again.

So what else is on this album “Covered Tracks: Vol.1,” and if there’s a “Volume 1,” doesn’t that mean there’s a “Volume 2,” maybe even more?

And I’m scanning the tracks and see a cover of “Midnight Rider.” And one of “House of the Rising Sun.” And then I’m interested, who exactly is this guy?

And I go to the Wikipedia page, at least he has one, meaning he’s got a certain level of fame, and I see that Eric Johanson has performed with a number of famous musicians, that he’s located squarely in the blues. And I see that these songs were recorded as part of a live stream. But did he add the electric guitar after, or was there another person in the room…who knows?

But one thing is for sure, Eric Johanson isn’t making music for the Top Forty. And I wouldn’t exactly call it Adult Alternative either. It’s definitely rooted in the blues. It’s like he digested all the music of the sixties just like those musicians listened to the progenitors and kept the flame a-burnin’.

I mean this guy Eric Johanson has a whole career, appears to be making a living making music and there’s no mainstream press, no hype, just acolytes keeping him alive.

The two covers albums, yes, there are two, were self-released. There were labels for the studio LPs in 2017, 2019 and 2020, but I don’t think Whiskey Bayou and Nola Blue Records can really help you out, no, if you want to go down this path, you’re on your own, you need to create your own fan base to keep you alive. And obviously this guy has, otherwise who would tune in to his live stream?

And the opening cut on the initial covers LP is Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4,” which was always seen as a drug song, even though I saw a video on TikTok that debunked this. Once upon a time, Chicago had credibility, don’t confuse the post-Terry Kath band with what came before. But how does Johanson know this? From his parents? His own exploration? After all, all these songs are hiding in plain sight, assuming you know where to go, and care.

And on the second covers LP Eric plays “Can’t You See,” the Marshall Tucker classic. As well as the Beatles’ “And I Love Her.” Can’t say I hear that “Hard Day’s Night” material much anymore.

But it’s “Oh I Wept” that reaches me. I mean this is a deep cut by a deep cut band, other than “All Right Now” Free had no commercial success, still is unknown by most, how did Johanson know this song, and why does his rendition reach me so?

Then again, it’s clear the Free version was cut in a studio. Whereas Johanson’s version sounds like there’s less between him and the listener, it’s more immediate, and then there’s that emotion.

But how many people know “Oh I Wept”? How many even know Eric Johanson?

But this guy has a place in the firmament.

Everything we used to know no longer applies. Sure, there’s a chart, but if you want soul fulfillment, people who are doing it not for fame, for the buck, but for the music, they’re elsewhere. Still out there, on their own journeys. Knowing if they even succeed odds are they’ll end up journeymen at best. But if you listen to them, go to see them, you’re getting an experience akin to the juke joint all those years ago, where it’s not for everybody, just those of you who are there, hearing and feeling the sound.

There’s definitely something here. And it’s coming clear.

It’s not the major labels’ nor the media’s music business anymore. It’s the audience’s. The machine’s reach is narrow. But if you go outside the push and instead pull, it’s amazing, the hit music used to deliver, it still can. And isn’t it funny, it’s stripped bare. And therefore it touches us even more than what is pushed.

Pull this.