Robb Johnson, singer/songwriter

Join one of the finest songwriters in the UK, Robb Johnson performing live in the Bay Area between January 8th to 14th

Tour Schedule:
— Friday 8th of January at Poet and Patriot Irish Pub in Santa Cruz, CA
— Saturday 9th of January at 2pm at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, CA
— Saturday 9th of January – live on air on KALW at 3pm AND at 5pm (two different shows)
— Saturday 9th of January – Berkeley House concert in the Evening. Email Sally Greenberg [email protected]
— Sunday 10th of January – live on air KPFA on Across The Great Divide
— Sunday 10th of January – 4pm matinee show at Starry Plough in Berkeley with Mat Callahan
— Wednesday 13th of January – live on air at 10pm on Sing Out on KPFA with Mat Callahan – 10pm
— Thursday 14th of January – Marxists School of Sacramento
Sierra 2 Center, 2791 24th Street, ROOM 12, Sacramento, CA 95816 http://www.marxistschool.org/
— Friday 15th to Sunday 17th of January – Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival in Burlingame. Workshops, live performances, and sing-alongs. More info here: www.westernworkersfestival.org

For more information about Robb Johnson, go here (http://tinyurl.com/hzvez8r), and grab his live DVD, No Gods No Masters: Live in Concert with Leon Rosselson here (http://tinyurl.com/ly84o5l)

About Robb Johnson:

“the UK’s most consistently strong songwriter” –Sean McGhee, Rock’n’Reel

“creator of some of the most potent songs of the last decade” –fRoots

“Britain’s finest songwriter since Richard Thompson” –Venue

“love songs as touching as the political material is sharp.” –Red Pepper

“One of Britain’s most challenging songwriters.” –The Daily Telegraph

“his songs are incisive and clever and witty and you can sing them on your way to work.” –Boff, Chumbawamba

“Great song – wish I’d written it!” –Tom Robinson

Robb Johnson is now widely recognised as one of the finest songwriters working in the UK today. His songs feature in the repertoires of a wide variety of musicians, from folk legend Roy Bailey to acclaimed cabaret diva Barb Jungr, & he enjoys a similarly diverse spectrum of critical acclaim – “a modern-day Dostoyevsky” said the US’s Dirty Linen, Mojo made the double CD Gentle Men Folk Album Of The Month, while The Daily Telegraph made it their Folk Album Of 1998, & Tony Benn says Johnson’s “Winter Turns To Spring” is his favourite song.

He has played pubs, clubs, pavements, pickets & benefits, arts centres & festivals, local radio, BBC Radio 3 & 4, Belgian Radio 1, Nicaraguan TV & Channel 4, the Albert Hole in Bristol &, as part of Roy Bailey’s 1998 concert, the Albert Hall in London. In February 2006 Robb appeared at the Barbican as part of the prestigious BBC “Folk Britannia” series, where “for the encore, Robb Johnson leads all the artists (and the audience) in the World War I song (‘Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire’)” (BBC Folk Britannia website) in a concert that was screened later that month on BBC4. Earlier this year Robb was the featured guest on Andy Kershaw’s Radio 3 programme. Robb also plays extensively in Belgium, Holland & Germany, & he has toured Britain supporting Chumbawamba, & the US with David Rovics.

Robb has worked with a variety of bands, with friend & fellow songwriter Leon Rosselson, as well as solo. In 1997 Robb wrote the song suite Gentle Men, an ambitious family history of the first world war for the Passendael Peace Concert, where the musicians were a jazz combo led by Belgian jazz legend Koen De Cauter, & he subsequently toured it successfully in Britain too. Robb’s album Metro (released in September 2005) featured piano accompaniment by the late Russel Churney, who had previously worked with Julian Clary, Barb Jungr & Fascinating Aida). Again, the album received widespread praise in both music & national press: “unquestionably classy… excellent songs (that) show again what a fine, if provocative writer Johnson is” (The Daily Telegraph).

His label Irregular Records has also facilitated releases by a variety of song-orientated artists, including an album celebrating the work of Jacques Brel that has done much to focus a renewed interest in the chanson genre. He has translated several of Brel’s songs & performed concerts celebrating Brel’s life & work. Robb has also co-written Woman, a biography of Yoko Ono, published by Chrome Dreams.