Carl Johnson
Joel Rafael Band Guitarist, Carl Johnson, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the Summer of 1951. During the following spring his family moved to California, settling in the San Gabriel Valley, a region that was midway in its transformation from orange groves and dairy farms to modern suburbia. "My home town, Covina, was just 30 miles East of downtown Los Angeles but not yet connected to it by freeway when we arrived."
It was while attending a small, cooperative Quaker school in near by Temple City that Carl was first initiated into the world of music. Taking up the violin at age six, he switched to guitar with the coming of the folk music boom of the early 1960s.
"At first I just wanted to be able to play Freight Train like my older brother and my best friend. But the music just grabbed hold of me and never let go. Basically, I taught myself to play by wearing out two albums, Cisco Houston Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie. I was consumed by it."
Other early influences included Big Bill Broonzy, Elizabeth Cotton, Mance Lipscomb, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez . Initially an acoustic music purist, Carl eventually discovered the electric sounds of Paul Butterfield and the vibrant world of Chicago blues. Which, in turn, opened him up to an ever-broadening range of musical interests and influences, from early Jefferson Airplane to Gabor Szabo, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Igor Stravinsky. "After all, this was the sixties!"
Graduating from high school a year early, Carl spent the next year and a half as a music major at the local community college. At age 18 he dropped out to join his first rock and roll band. Blending acoustic and electric instruments, Sweet Pain released it's one and only album on United Artists Records in 1970. With the demise of that band, Carl spent the next several years forming and reforming new bands, writing, performing and relocating.
After six months in a San Francisco basement, a year in The Valley of The Moon, and four years in the Trukee area of the Sierra Nevadas, Carl eventually returned to Los Angeles with a new band, new songs and new hopes. Rock Rose released its self-titled album on CBS Records in 1979.
Small Talk released its self-titled album on MCA Records in 1981. Jack Street covered two of Carl's songs on his RCA Records release of 1982, but not before Carl threw in the towel.
Weary of the music business, and the musician's life, Carl set an entirely new course for himself. Returning to college, then attending graduate school, he became a psychotherapist, married and started a family. With the exception of holidays, family gatherings and the occasional house concert, Carl's guitars remained in their cases for most of a decade.
Then, in 1992, Carl received a call from old friend and songwriter, Joel Rafael. Ripe to return to his acoustic music roots, and with the support of his family, Carl began to play regularly with Joel, beginning a collaboration that would rapidly evolve into the Joel Rafael Band as it now stands.