FOLKSINGER MICHAEL JOHNATHON HITS HARD WITH LEGACY
FOLKSINGER MICHAEL JOHNATHON HITS HARD WITH LEGACY
Musician, songwriter and broadcast personality, Michael Johnathon, has released his 15th studio album, Legacy. The album is set to release on March 17, 2020 and features 10 songs including the massive title track, Legacy, a nine-minute epic about the history of songwriters from Bob Dylan to James Taylor, Harry Chapin to the Kingston Trio, hip-hop to the collapse of the record industry as we knew it.
“Legacy is a tribute and celebration of all artists,” says Johnathon. “We are in an odd time in America and a strange time in music. Everyone is struggling to find their audience, and it’s getting harder.”
The album will also feature tracks such as the plaintive Rain, which includes an iconic string quartet and descending bass lines reminiscent of David Gates’ classic ballad Audrey, a banjo reinvention of Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies and his own total remake of (Like a) Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan.
“Legacy perfectly captures a time when it’s become so difficult for artists to get their music heard, Michael continues to provide a road map for others to follow,” says Jim Monaghan of WDHA-FM The Rock of New Jersey.
About Michael Johnathon
Folksinger Michael Johnathon is a touring songwriter, author of five published books, playwright of the Walden Play performed in 42 countries, composer of the opera, Woody: for the People, organizer of the national association of front porch musicians called SongFarmers, the full symphony performances public television special of Songs of Rural America and as the creator and host of the live audience broadcast of WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour.
WoodSongs airs on 500 radio stations including the legendary WSM AM the home of the Grand Ole Opry, public TV coast-to-coast, American Forces Network on 177 nations and the RFD-TV Network nationwide with a radio and TV audience of over two million fans each week.
WoodSongs produced its historic 1,000th live audience broadcast November, 2019
He grew up in upstate New York along the shores of the Hudson River. At 19 years old, he moved to the Mexican border town of Laredo, Texas and found a job working as the late night DJ on a small radio station. One night, he played ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ by Roger McGuinn and The Byrds. As the song played, he recalled seeing the songs writer, his neighbor Pete Seeger, performing in his Dutchess County hometown in New York. By the time the song had ended, he decided to pursue a career as a folksinger.
Two months later, he bought a guitar and a banjo and settled into the isolated mountain hamlet of Mousie, Kentucky. For the next three years, he traveled up and down the hollers of the Appalachian mountains knocking on doors and learning the music of the mountain people. Soon enough, he began performing concerts at hundreds of colleges, schools and fairs. He performed two thousand Earth Concerts, plus benefits for the homeless, farm families, and shelters helping battered women and children. In all, he sang to over two million people in one four-year stretch.
Now settled in the foothills of Appalachia, the Kentucky-based songwriter is a log cabin-dwelling tree-hugger at heart. Billboard Magazine headlined him as an “UnSung Hero” and he has been featured on CNN, TNN, CMT, AP, Headline News, NPR, Bravo and the BBC.
His latest 176-page book WoodSongs 4 was released in 2019 and his latest album, Legacy, in March 2020.