Woodyfest 2018: Johnsmith

Kerrville Award Winner Johnsmith at the Crystal Theatre

Making Making his [Sidenote: The fourth entry in our ongo­ing series cov­er­ing the 21^st Annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival fea­tures award-win­ning singer-song­writer Johnsmith.] eighth appear­ance as a per­former at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, Johnsmith thrilled the audi­ence with a rock ’n’ roll atti­tude brushed over a solid folk foun­da­tion. The Wisconsin-based per­former played Thursday after­noon at the Crystal Theatre. Radoslav “Rad” Lorković accom­pa­nied him on keys and accor­dion, and fes­ti­val favorite Jaimee Harris pro­vided vocal har­monies on a cou­ple of the clos­ing numbers.

Johnsmith has released eight solo albums to pos­i­tive reviews, as well as win­ning the Kerrville New Folk Award and being nom­i­nated for an Independent Spirit Music Award. [Sidenote: His song, “Blue Jay,” was entered in the Blues cat­e­gory at the 10^th annual com­pe­ti­tion.]

Born one of ten chil­dren in small-town Iowa, Johnsmith learned gui­tar as a teenager and began writ­ing songs soon after. In addi­tion to col­lab­o­ra­tions with Dan Sebranek, Johnsmith has released six solo albums. For the past thir­teen years he has led Inishfree, a pro­gram of musi­cal tours of Ireland.

Gallery