Product Description

VENUS ISLE heralds the return of Zippo-waving, head-bobbingAOR and the larger-than-life guitar god. Eric Johnson is fully capable of accepting that lofty mantle. He combines dizzying dexterity with a harmonically advanced compositional style that encompasses progressive rock, blues and jazz fusion.
Disdaining the shred-and-burn approach favoured by manyof his peers, Johnson opts instead for an atmospheric, delicately textured sound on VENUS ISLE. This sonic featherbed is realised with the help of synth player Steve Barber, whosekeyboard washes and arpeggios shadow Johnson's guitar throughout the album. Johnson himself contributes a fair amount of synth (triggered by both guitar and keyboards), a testament to the fact that he is a texturalist first and a chopsmeister second--though his storied axemanship is featured prominently on tunes like "Camel's Night Out" and "All About You".Johnson has put as much care into his arrangements, lyrics and composition as his guitar playing on VENUS ISLE. For a guitarist on his level, that's quite a bit of care.

Track Listing

1. Venus Isle
2. Battle We Have Won
3. All About You
4. SRV
5. Lonely In The Night
6. Manhattan
7. Camel's Night Out
8. Song For Lynette
9. When The Sun Meets The Sky
10. Pavillion
11. Venus Reprise

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28133 in Music
• Released on: 1996-09-09
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Superb guitar music
There is an excellent balance between the guitar, voice, and other band instruments. The clarity and quality of the music on this album, is just stunning. I am now desperate to see live.
I enjoy in particular listening to guitar artists; Hendrix, Satriani, Vai, Santana, SRV, Hillage, Blackmore, Gallagher, Blug, Howe, Lofgren, N. Young, Petty, Beck, Clapton......I think you see where I am going, and Eric Johnson's guitar work is up there with them all.
As to any one track that stands out I suspect each to his own, but I'm sure there is something for all air guitarists, within the album, and at the price Amazon are selling it for, it is truly good value for money, a must for your guitar collection.
Play few tracks at a reasonable level on a Sunday morning to get a feel good factor to the day.

SUPERB
THIS GUY IS AMAZING I WISH I COULD PLAY GUITAR LIKE THIS, I HEARD WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER ON THE RADIO AND HAVE BOUGHT MOST OF HIS ALBUMS AND ENJOY THIS ALBUM SO MUCH.

shocking ... 1996
My second Johnson CD I bought was Venus Isle. Released 6 years after Ah Via Musicom I didn't really know what to expect, 6 years is a long way to go and enough time for lots of changes in style ...

Looking at the songs, you'll find there Manhattan and Camel's Night Out, Johnson played these two on the G3 tour with JS and SV. And for me, they are classics.

This is an excellent album. The first two songs are beautiful (Venus Isle, Battle We Have Won) and the following ones are of the same high quality. On the cover you can read that EJ is called Baron Von Tone, well, listening to how he can play and how it sounds, you cannot disagree. Don't expect any races, you will find nice melodic songs with very technical solos, you will find guitar sound that is just one of it's kind.