The era of the ’70s bubbled over with a wealth of singer-songwriters that lived within the folk/rock genre. many of those singers captured a significant share of the album sales that happened week after week. In fact, listening to Top 40 radios, one was guaranteed to hit upon much more than a single artist from this category. The genre itself, although not gone away, has narrowed these decades after the ’70s.
One recording artist that I’ve recently been introduced to is Nels Johnson. Nels Johnson is an Oregon native that found his country-esque Folk style as a youth. After a hiatus to attend college, Nels Johnson resurrected his stored guitar and began writing songs that have a distinct Neil Young flavor within its set of compositional ingredients.
On October 14, Nels Johnson released his first album, Ios. The album is filled with ten tracks that look at the human experience from various angles that include the Father/Son dynamic, a fear of personal displacement after a life has been lived out, and the essence of immigrants looking for better lives.
I found the album to be refreshing in many ways. The first was in its adopted style, one that I realized that I missed after some 40 years of music. The others were in the topics and realizations. One is “American Dream”, where I recognized more fully the inherent desire of immigrants to create a better existence than one that they’re forced to live by way of their birth. As Americans, it’s easy to forget that America is a beacon of better living for so many people.
Another gem is “Holy Men”. Derived from the excellent Kazuo Ishiguro novel, The Buried Giant, “Holy Men” explores the concepts found in the book of memory loss (in the book, the loss of memory is achieved selectively via a mist) and the gap of existence and purpose it creates for many.
Ios is highly recommended for those that miss the period where thought and music often merged from the mind, voice, and guitar of a folk singer. Nels Johnson has done a fine job of achieving creativity in a genre that is smaller than it used to be. In that, he becomes a foundational stone.
You can click over to his Bandcamp page (here) and discover Nels Johnson for yourself.
Ios – Nels Johnson
01 Sixteen Years
02 The Light That Guides Me
03 Her Memories
04 American Dream
05 Rest
06 Wake Me Up
07 Surrender
08 Old Virginia
09 Another Peace of Mind
10 Holy Men