Live In Mississippi Eric Johanson

• 1 Nowhere To Go 04:50
• 2 Undertow 04:17
• 3 Just Like New 05:23
• 4 Yellow Moon 04:35
• 5 Galaxy Girl 04:04
• 6 I Walk On Guilded Splinters 06:02
• 7 Hard Time Killing Floor Blues 02:32
• 8 Familiar Sound 04:16
• 9 Changes The Universe 05:30
• 10 Don't Hold Back 05:01
• Total Runtime 46:30

Info for Live In Mississippi

The best live albums put you right there on the front row. And as the raucous Friday-night crowd welcomes Eric Johanson to the stage at the Ground Zero Club in Biloxi, Mississippi, for a set that mines his Billboard-topping studio catalogue, you’ll feel this generational performer in your bones. “I want Live In Mississippi to make people feel like they're at our show,” says the Louisiana-born bandleader of the live album bottled last August in the home of the blues and released in March 2025 on Ruf Records. “Whether they've just seen the band and want to take a piece of that home with them, or they’ve never seen us perform at all, I want it to bring across the energy and emotion of the live show.”

As anyone with their finger on the pulse of modern rock and blues surely knows, Johanson is amongst a handful of artists dragging these ancient musical forms in vital new directions. Represented by no fewer than five songs on Live In Mississippi, 2023’s solo breakthrough The Deep And The Dirty was his biggest critical and commercial hit so far, summiting the Billboard Blues Chart and igniting the bandleader’s global profile. “A lot has happened since The Deep And The Dirty,” he nods. “It was #1 on the Billboard and we took the music overseas for the first time, performing in ten countries through Europe, as well as all across the US. It’s been great to meet people from so many walks of life who are digging the music. This record captures us after a year of touring in support of The Deep And The Dirty and has some of the songs we most enjoyed playing each night.”

From the thundering gallop of Undertow to the instinctive slide-blues of Just Like New, Johanson’s power trio moves with a rare musical telepathy. Galaxy Girl packs a brittle sting – the band dropping out in the verses to give Johanson’s vocal full rein – while the bottleneck licks of Familiar Sound sound both old as the hills and utterly of the moment. It builds to a climax with Don’t Hold Back’s moody strut, the bandleader’s solo right on the brink of anarchy – and that’s exactly how he likes it.

“I'm really thrilled with how Live In Mississippi turned out,” says Johanson. “The great thing about making a live record is you just play your heart out at the show, and the record captures where you are at that moment in your life. You don't have a chance to overthink or re-do anything – or at least you shouldn't. I just focus on sharing an experience with the people in the room, and I think the listener at home can feel that…”

Eric Johanson, guitar, vocals
Terry Scott, Jr., drums
Will Repholz, bass

Eric Johanson
Combining influences from an array of genres and his work as a touring guitarist for Grammy winning bands, New Orleans artist Eric Johanson creates blues-based alternative roots rock in his rising solo career.

Following years spent on the road as a guitarist, having performed onstage with Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, JJ Grey, Eric Lindell, and the Neville Brothers, Eric was discovered by Louisiana blues-rock icon Tab Benoit, signing Johanson to his Whiskey Bayou Record label in 2017.

Eric’s debut solo album, Burn It Down, was produced by Benoit and released in October 2017. Sacramento News & Review described it as “an earnest blend of roots-Americana singing and brawny, backwoods guitar grooves.” Cincinnati City Beat noted, “Along with his solid playing and singing, Johanson’s willingness to write Blues music without adhering to the genre’s traditional structuring makes for a compelling listen, as does his deeper examination of the emotions that the Blues were built upon.”

Following the release of Burn It Down, Eric spent the next two years on Benoit’s tour bus opening most of his shows, as well as performing festivals and doing short tours of his own.

In January 2019 Eric released a duet record with his long lost (and re-united) first cousin Tiffany Pollack entitled Blues In My Blood, on Nola Blue Records.

During the 2019 Jazz Fest, Johanson was invited to perform with Luther Dickinson at an all-star jam concert. The two hatched plans to make Eric’s next record at Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch Studios, with Luther producing and brother Cody Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars on drums.

Eric signed with Nola Blue Records in early 2020 for his sophomore LP release, Below Sea Level.

Below Sea Level was recorded at Zebra Ranch in late February 2020, with Terrence Grayson (Victor Wainwright) on bass, and Ray Jacildo (JD McPherson) providing an additional B3 organ on one track. The album features 12 original songs penned by Johanson, and was mixed by Dan Auerbach’s head engineer at Easy Eye Sound in Nashville, M. Allen Parker.

“The songs deal a lot with rebuilding and reorienting the mind and one’s relationship to the world,” Eric explains. “With this album I was finally able to bring my blues and rock influences to a place of more imagination and creativity, while keeping it organic and honest. It’s contemporary music naturally grown from the roots of southern blues and psychedelic inspiration.”

Booklet for Live In Mississippi