Josh Johansson
As Keith Urban put it, "I would have never guessed that voice was coming out of you." I am always looking to improve but I also want to acknowledge that I have come a long way.
I started out taking drum lessons as a kid but I never really thought that much about music. It was always around but I never thought I'd be a real musician.
Fast forward to my freshman year of college...
One of my fraternity brothers had just bought a guitar and at the time he really only knew how to play one song. It happened to be a song that I liked so I started singing along to his playing. In the middle of our "jam sesh" I noticed a couple other fraternity brothers listening with surprised looks on their faces. We finished the song and they started fussing at me for not telling them that I knew how to sing.
The truth is, I didn't know I could sing!
Not long after that I went home and started practicing on a guitar that I had sitting around my house since middle school. I would go home every day and practice til I thought my fingers were going to fall off. I finally got to the point where I could play and sing at the same time and my fraternity brothers made me go play at Armstrong's Open Mic Night. I bet there were at least 200 people in that ballroom and I had never been so nervous in my life! Well, that was the first time I ever performed in front of people I didn't know. But that was also the first time I really earned an applause. That was one of the best feelings ever! You could probably still find that video on YouTube. I sang "Stupid Boy" by Keith Urban.
After another year, I met a local really cool woman, named Ginger. Since I was too young to get into the bars, I had no clue who she was. But I soon found out Ginger was a rockstar and the lead singer of the band Liquid Ginger. Well she invited me out to a show to sing a couple songs during her bands acoustic set at Retro on Congress. It was an awesome bar in the middle of Downtown Savannah. After singing a few songs the owner of the bar, Amy, invited me to come play a show on a Tuesday night. Well, I went home that night and learned 30 songs to make sure I had enough material to put on a whole show! After playing at Retro a couple times, I started playing there every week.
That's where my journey started. Since then, I've played with dozens of really talented musicians, I've been the co-lead singer of rock band called 2ToneFish, I've opened up for the Paula Dean Live Tour, and I've even made it to the Top 75 of American Idol's Farewell Season!
So yeah, with the help of God and many, many people, I have come a long way. But I have a very long way to go.
Come check me out playing some soulful tunes for you throughout the Southeast!
Thanks!
-Josh