About Me
I discovered the piano at about 6 or 7, started writing songs at eight, played the bars from about 16, already on my way to Los Angeles in my mind.....and never looked back.
In the beginning, I just listened to records, took the needle off every few seconds til I had learned the songs and then played them at the gigs....but eventually I started sneaking in my own writing about the time I thought it would go unnoticed by the clientele.........
Mom taught me the basics of harmony...I think Silent Night was the first one and we branched out from there....
Mom and Dad sang acapella together in the car though neither of them sang professionally. Mom could have done but it would have been unusual in Ellsworth, Maine...Still, their serenades were very spirited and I remember them fondly. One of my favorite songs to sing with them at about 6 was the Mills Brother's popular Paper Doll, (I wrote a much darker song with the same title for my Blue Light cd.) Dad was a school teacher and Mom stayed at home until I, being the youngest of 3 boys and a girl, was in upper grade-school. Then she worked in the family blueberry farming business until she retired. I was always inspired by her solos on Sundays at church although she was a dead-on soprano and I clearly had inherited my father's deeper voice and was an alto from the get.
When I was eighteen, and just out of highschool, playing in clubs with top forty bands around New England (as a keyboard player mostly), I took a brief trip with my cousin to LA to visit some friends and on the plane we happened to sit next to Bruce Springsteen's sax player, Clarence Clemons, and traded some laughs. Looking back, now, my life quite literally changed from that day forward..........When we got home from our vacation I sent a tape of some of my songs to the address he had given us......and he contacted me immediately and flew me to New Jersey to introduce me to his musical circle of friends. I then moved to California at nineteen on their advice and have lived there ever since.
I got involved in the music publishing biz early on and after a few years of grinding it out in the LA clubs, I had some songs covered by some very reputable artists that helped my career greatly...Stevie Nicks, Laura Brannigan, Bette Midler, Trisha Yearwood, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, Johnny Cash, etc......... and was lucky enough to work with some wonderful producers in a number of capacities like Henry Lewy, T-Bone Burnett, Charles Plotkin, Stephen Soles, Garth Fundis, Larry Klein, etc. until in 2002, I put out a collection of my own songs (several of which other artists had already covered) called Coming of Age, then another in 2004 called On A Good Day, followed by a more jazz/blues inspired cd in 2007 called Blue Light. Now, in 2008, I am set to release my fourth cd which was recorded on the heels of Blue Light, once again in the jazz/blues genre, called Mr. Sun.........I am always grateful to hear other singers covering my songs and I equally enjoy performing them myself. There is still a long list of artists I would love to get my songs to. My work is never finished............JJ.................Johnstone's critically acclaimed debut CD "Coming Of Age" (released in 2002 on independent label BoJak Records) was featured on NPR's Morning Edition and reached number 6 on Amazon's Best Seller's List. "Coming of Age" includes the song "Wounded Heart," which was featured in the episode “Independence Day,†on Lifetime's television series "Army Wives," during the 2007 season. Bonnie Raitt covered "Wounded Heart," on her CD "Silver Lining," released in 2002. Johnstone's sophomore CD "On a Good Day," released in 2005, attracted guest vocal appearances by Jackson Browne, Rodney Crowell, Julie Miller, and Bonnie Raitt. "On a Good Day" generated impressive media buzz leading to Johnstone's appearance on CBS's "The Early Show." "Blue Light" is her current jazz/blues flavored CD that possesses the sensitive, soulful and poetic qualities found in her previous discs but returns Johnstone to the musical influences of Sarah Vaughn, Tony Bennett, Billie Holliday etc. that she grew up with while listening to her father's record collection. All three CDs are available at CDBaby.com and Amazon.com with physical distribution at all retail stores by Burnside Distribution, www.bddistribution.com and digital distribution through IODA. Presently, Johnstone is putting the finishing touches on her latest cd "Mr. Sun" which is due out in late August 2008.
