Johnny Nomad & the Wanderers + Band in Winnipeg, MB

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ABOUT

"One More Rider, One More Road"

The Earth is one vast wilderness and Johnny Nomad roams around with The Wanderers playing to whoever will listen.

Continuing in the time-honoured, centuries-old tradition of minstrels, bards, balladeers and troubadours, Johnny Nomad and The Wanderers travel the musical map on their harmonious journey, changing course whenever a left feels right, and roving with no direction home. You won't be disappointed by these gypsy dharma bums!

Whether at street corners, in the local pub, on the Festival circuit or a major tour, Johnny Nomad and The Wanderers are sure to please you as you ramble along your way.

So, if you see Johnny Nomad busking outside a local liquor store, throw some spare change into his guitar case -- he needs help to get to wherever he's going to the next gig!

Or, if you see him with his guitar on the side of the road with his thumb out and want to play with him... hey, pick Johnny Nomad up and become a Wanderer with him. With one more rider, there's one more road!

Live sets include mostly original songs as well as a variety of cover tunes, playing acoustic or electric, semi-acoustic or semi-electric, or just even semi!

Venues currently playing, if you are interested in joining Johnny Nomad & The Wanderers, include live jam and open mic sessions (e.g., little or no rehearsal) for the love of the music (i.e., little or no renumeration), with the goal being to get regular, steady-paying gigs leading to touring and recording!

Screen name:

JohnnyNomadTheWanderers

Member since:

Apr 14 2007

Active over 1 month ago

Level of commitment:

Touring

Years together:

6

Gigs played:

Over 100

Tend to practice:

2-3 times per week

Available to gig:

2-3 nights a week

Age:

63 years

Influences

the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Pete Townsend, David Bowie, Eric Clapton.

In 1965, Bob Dylan started a musical revolution in modern culture when the acoustic folk singer suddenly went electric at the Newport Jazz Festival. It was following a workshop on Saturday, July 24, during which Dylan performed two songs acoustically ("All I Really Want to Do" and "Mr. Tambourine Man"), that he mentioned to organist Al Kooper that he wanted to play alongside a pickup band the next evening for his mainstage concert. After they had practiced all Saturday night in a nearby mansion, the band - most of who were members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, also playing that weekend - went on stage the following Sunday night. According to Kooper, "The Butterfield Band didn't have the best chemistry to back Dylan... It was a tough night - complicated and ugly". The immediate outcry from the audience and the subsequent controversy surrounding the evening set was hotly debated, but began a tradition of playing songs "electrically", becoming an established part of concerts by Dylan. Thus, Dylan helped redefine rock 'n' roll.

Only a month earlier of that that same year (June 1965), The Byrd's released their rendition of Mr. Tambourine Man, thereby successfully bridging the gap between the folk music of Bob Dylan and the hybrid pop of The Beatles. The Bob Dylan song was given a full electric treatment, and effectively created folk rock, that is the marriage between the rhythms of rock 'n' roll with the sensibilities of contemporary urban folk music, merging the two separate but distinctive musical sounds produced by both The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

The Times They Are A-Changing, though. It started with acoustic roots: the folk singer/songwriter on guitar; now the reverse happens now - the so-called "unplugged music".

Unplugged refers to rock musicians primarily known for playing electric amplified instruments (usually the electric guitar & electric bass) performing live using primarily acoustic instruments. The phenomenon of rock stars re-creating their hits in an acoustic manner was well established by the early 1980s, although the word 'unplugged' had not yet been applied to the concept. However, during the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed acoustic versions of their hits "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" and, following the popularity of the Bon Jovi performance, MTV began the Unplugged series of concerts. The word became incorporated into the title of the popular MTV series, MTV Unplugged, that began in the 1989/1990 US TV season, on which musicians performed acoustic or "unplugged" versions of their familiar repertoire. Many of these performances were subsequently released as albums, often featuring the title Unplugged.

A dozen or so years after helping to inspire this whole Unplugged movement, Bon Jovi recorded and released their album This Left Feels Right (2003), another fine example (IMHO!) of re-working a personal colletion or catalogue of songs that, as Richie Sambora remarks in the liner notes, "have been big hits in the consciousness of the global record-buying public..."; Jon further adds that "it says a lot for the songs that they are able to be that versatile, and the lyrics are able to come across in a new context. Reinvention is not such an easy thing when you're so connected to the song. But [they become] old friends in new clothes".

When a song is good, it can be stripped down and be able to stand on its own, regardless of the studio recording that often includes multi-layered production and over-dubs. Perhaps we could say that the world has enough of this "unplugged rendition" of popular songs, but I am reminded by the U2 approach to Joshua Tree album where Bono was quoted as saying that they wanted that album to be able to be played around the campfire...
they certainly accomplished that with Joshua Tree, where just about every song can be strummed and sung (to) with just an acoustic guitar and some well-spoken words...

Another case in point is The Who's "Tommy" concept album that Pete Townshend crafted on an acoustic guitar and transformed it into a symphonic rock opera... a complex set of pop-rock arrangements, generally based upon Townshend's acoustic guitar and built up with many overdubs by the four members of the band using many instruments, including bass, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, organ, drumkit, gong, tympani, trumpet, French horn, three-part vocal harmonies and occasional doubling on vocal solos. Throughout the years, though, Pete Townshend was highly regarded for his live acoustics versions of many of these famed songs.

Singer/Songwriters like Neil Young embody what I see as the musician as artist (or, 'artiste' -- that's 'artist' with an 'e' as David Lee Roth once described Eddie Van Halen and that guitar legend's technical prowess!). They morph, they change, each time with a sense of understanding the song. We admire these artists for their freedom to produce music the way they want it to be heard on record, yet they are not afraid to experiment with the sounds in a live presentation that changes the way the songs can be interpreted. It is in this spirit that Johnny Nomad and the Wanderers play. The songs remain the same, but they are interpreted differently each time we play because of the freedom to roam and experiment with sounds. A poem becomes a madrigal becomes a dirge: in the end we have made music. We just like to jam!

Members Of Band

1. a group of people or tribe having no permanent or fixed home, but habitually moving about from place to place, usually seasonally and often following a traditional route or circuit, i.e., a well-defined area, in search of food, water, and grazing land.

2. persons with no fixed residence who roam about aimlessly, usually without purpose; any wanderer, itinerant, rambler or rover.

3. individuals who move or travel about without destination or purpose, going casually or by an indirect route and extending in irregular courses.

EQUIPMENT

Fairly extensive collection of acoustic and electric guitars; bass; mandolin; dulcimer; harmonicas; keys (including a Fender Rhodes piano); drums/percussion; audio (mics, monitor speakers, sound boards, etc.); and more!

CALENDAR

Past Events