Inspired by his love of traditional country music, North Carolina born artist Addison Johnson packed his bags and headed to Music City to record with the sounds of George Jones and Waylon Jennings uppermost in his mind. Ten years later and with a lot of water under the bridge, he has released his latest album DARK SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. This is a hard-hitting compilation of stories that he’s justifiably proud of - and it has attracted lots of love from fans of this genre. We tracked down Addison in Nashville for a Zoom chat about the album and life during and after lockdown.
What were your ambitions leaving North Carolina for Nashville?
I didn’t come from a lot of money and never really had a goal when I moved to Nashville. I loved to write songs and I wanted to be a part of trying to pursue that. I moved to town with about fifty bucks in my pocket and took out a student loan to Middle Tennessee University. I was probably somebody who was never meant to go to college, but I went anyway and majored in beer and girls for a few years. I also worked every small job in Nashville. I moved here to be part of country music because it is something that I have always been passionate about. There is not another person in my family who is a musician, so the direction was never really there. I came down to see if I could figure it out and ten years later they still have not kicked me out. I grew up listening to country music in North Carolina. My grandmother played old 33 records of George Jones and Merle Haggard and guys like that. That is where my love of story songs came about but finding my own musical direction is something that I had to do on my own.
I understand you gave up drinking a few years back. Had you fears that your creativity might suffer as a result?
A lot of creative people and artists are possibly not that structured a lot of times. We often come across criticism on a daily basis. More criticism that many people would see in their entire lives. And that hits on self-confidence and the like and that’s where a lot of the drinking starts. So, it was one of those things that when I really knew that I wanted to quit drinking I was scared, because I thought that it would be like superman taking off his cape. I would lose my powers to write and to bring that inspiration. But once I was able to think clearly, I actually found the opposite. Within the first few months when I quit drinking, I basically wrote the entire DARK SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN record then. Being sober also helped me to think more clearly and not give up on songs as much I used to.
There are a lot of dark and hard-hitting songs on DARK SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN.
I just love dark music. It’s not that I am opposed necessarily to love songs, but how many different ways can we write a love song that has not already been written. That’s why I got into story songs and songs about things that people do not talk about a lot. I prefer stories a bit darker: about guys running moonshine or a guy running from the police and things like that. I never sit down and say ‘I am going to write a song today.’ It just happens. I am more the type that will sit down when I’m ready to write and I’m practically in a coma for thirty minutes, and when I come around the song is just about written.
How autobiographical are the songs on the album?
There is a lot me in some of these stories, especially Blue Eyes Red and Black Leather Red Letters. When I first moved to Nashville I went out and had a lot of fun. Being on the road and touring most of the time was really part of growing up for me after moving here at twenty years of age. I had to learn things the hard way, I was a big drinker and I had drank heavily since I was probably sixteen years old. It’s something that I struggled with a lot but through that I was able to have different experiences, some good, some bad. Some of the songs on the album came from those times and experiences. I ended the album with Black Leather Red Letters because I’ve also been a big fan of having a gospel song at the end of a record. It’s a number of things, firstly to pay tribute to the faith that I have but also to pay tribute to the country music legends that used to close their albums with a gospel song.
When was the album initially due for release?
I had actually planned on releasing it in the spring of 2020. By January of last year, I could see the writing on the wall and that something wasn’t quite right and that it was going to be a crazy year. So, I thought why not hold off on until the summer and see what happens. And what ended up happening was that we decided to delay it all together and not put it out until 2021. I got back to writing again and was feeding more into the songs that had already been recorded. We started going back under the hood and stripping stuff out and putting new stuff in. We actually finished the record before Thanksgiving of 2020 with all the new stuff that we had added in.
You’ve resisted the temptation of writing and recording a formulaic Music Row pop /crossover album masquerading as country?
When I first moved to Nashville, I signed a publishing deal immediately and I thought ‘man this is really easy.’ The more that I got into it, the more I thought of how much I had sacrificed leaving North Carolina and my family and my grandfather, who was just a giant. He was my inspiration and I missed the last years of his life. I had to make so many sacrifices. I finally came to the realisation that I did not want to write crappy songs for money. What was more important to me was to try and build a legacy that I could be proud of and would make the sacrifices worthwhile. That is something that I have truly stuck with instead of just going ‘beer, truck, girl’ songs all the time. That’s what really frustrates me with this industry. In my opinion we have the most talented songwriters in the world right here but many of them are being handcuffed by corporate greed to make the quick fast buck. That’s not at all what country music is about. I like a pick-up truck and back in the day I liked a cold beer and I like pretty girls, but that’s not reality for most people that listen to country music. That’s a fantasy. Country music is about the ups and downs, the pressures and the successes of what happens in a real person’s life. For me it’s all about trying to continue on that legacy the best I can, for the people that have meant the most to me. That tradition is so important to me, so I don’t go and try to make a lot of money sitting with five guys in a room writing songs every day. I do this my own way and it’s something that I can be proud of when I go to sleep at night.
As an independent artist in a competitive industry, how do you go about marketing yourself?
I market myself by any means possible (laughs). We try to use every avenue. I am not a huge fan of the streaming stuff and I feel that as a music industry we have pickled ourselves financially by doing that. But it’s something that if you do not embrace you will be left behind. We’ve had very good success by way of streaming. I was pretty late to the game on streaming. I found it hard to go and spend $15,000 and record and two years of my life of writing, and then I get to give it away to someone who pays a $9 subscription. Rollin’ Stolen from the new record is approaching 100,000 streams and that’s a really big step for us.
I understand that you also use your passion for fishing as a means of self-promotion?
The fishing goes back to my grandfather who was a huge fisherman and bass fishing particularly, which all my family were passionate about. I got the passion but maybe not as much of the talent. Most outdoor people, whether they fish or hunt or just like being outdoors, like traditional and old-time country music. So, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two. I reached out to a number of local companies in that industry and offered to share their stuff with my fans and by return they might share my country music with their clients. So, we both support each other’s products. That’s kind of how this whole thing came about, simply out of my love for fishing and it’s a little niche to go along with my music. I got in touch with a bunch of people from companies who want to hop on to the idea which is really cool because they are fans of what I do as much as I am fans of what they do. I always say that they support me on the water. So, when we had the new record coming out you had all these fishing pages on social media plugging this record. When I am playing at shows some people want to talk about music and some people want to talk about fishing. I’m just a good old boy from North Carolina, there’s nothing special about me and sometimes I think people feel comfortable coming up to me and speaking about things that they are comfortable about, like the outdoors and fishing. It’s been a really cool connection because I have a passion for fishing anywhere with water. If you fill the bathtub up, I’ll probably have a shot there, too. I’ve got a hitch on the back of my van and if I’ve got a couple of extra days on the road, I’ll go play the show and go fishing the next day. It’s been a lot of fun to do.
Where do you place yourself in the country music genre?
I don’t know if I’m an outlaw country singer, I might be an introduction to outlaw country for some people. I think I sit in between traditional and blues music. I hear all the time around here people saying that country music is dead. It’s not dead, you just have to look for it. If you want to take your significant other one out to eat you can find McDonald’s off every exit, but if you want to go and have a nice meal you need to look it up on your phone, check the reviews and do the research. If we can do that for a good meal, why can’t we do it for music? I consider myself to be somewhat a part of the Americana genre but I think Tyler Childers does have a point by calling Americana ‘the basement with all the cool kids who are hiding from country music upstairs’.
I see that you are getting back on the road and playing live shows again?
Coming out of Covid, everybody wants to open up but it’s like sticking your toe into the pool to see if the water is cold or not. So, at the moment I’m keeping it quite low-key. I’m playing solo or with duos and trios, but as time moves on, I’ll be bringing out a full band. As things have gone for me lately the need to bring a band is growing.
How have your shows been received coming out of lockdown?
I think it’s a combination of things with people stuck in the house for the past year and also musicians having some good records out there. But the response of the shows has been incredible, every single show seems to be better than the last. When you’re used to being out on the road one hundred and eighty days a year, you have your road family out there, people that you see in various places always turning up. It’s like seeing your family getting on the road meeting these guys again.
On a personal basis have you any positives to report from the pandemic?
Absolutely. If I were to talk to you in March 2020, I would’ve told you that the world is ending. In the end I probably have to credit 2020 with one of the best years of my life. It was purely because I picked myself up off the floor after years of feeling sorry for myself. There is no industry or person on this earth that this pandemic doesn’t touch. Artists needed to get back to work and we were probably able to accomplish a lot more than most people. I was very fortunate in that I was able to get a record down and had platforms like social media to reach out and get in touch with my fanbase. Being off the road presented an opportunity for me and my small team to work at stuff like promotional pictures and the website, to set myself up to be more successful. Also having the extra time to write songs was extremely valuable to me.
Interview by Declan Culliton