Canvas Rebel is a Los Angeles-based magazine (print and online) that asked me a few questions about creativity, career, and taking risks. I weighed in regarding four major leaps of faith I took in life and how it worked out: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-johnny-j-blair
Hello Fellow Astro-Travelers, The CD of my new album has just landed (LP coming soon, streaming will be in a later orbit)—listen here.
The songs are inspired by the 1968 “Bread & Circuses” episode of Star Trek, Alexander Key’s “Forgotten Door” novel, the C.S. Lewis space trilogy, Prof. Quatermass, J.R.R. Tolkien & The Inklings, Twilight Zone, The Bible, age, mortality, eternity, and David Bowie’s “space characters,” evidenced by my cover of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (replete with Mellotron and Stylophone).
Musically I was inspired by Badfinger, HOLLAND-era Beach Boys, “White Album” Beatles, early Bee Gees, Bowie, Glen Campbell, Neil Finn, King Crimson, 10cc, & The Moody Blues, and a psychedelic spectrum that could’ve come from Laurel Canyon or London.
Guest musicians include Mark Jones, Robin Mackey, Robert M. Powell, Prairie Prince (The Tubes, Todd Rundgren), Mike Roe (The 77s), and Chris von Sneidern. Cover art by the inimitable Les Toil. Be the first to blast off with your copy, and I will sign it with cosmic love.
Cheers, JJB
Buster Records has reissued Johnny’s classic album I Like The Street on CD with updated cover art. With musical guests Beyondo, Bret Alexander (Badlees), Mike Garson (David Bowie), and Felipe Torres (Monkees). I Like The Street is the “bicycle diaries” of a working musician with tributes to film noir, actor Clive Owen, and “the dark sacred night.”
This song hearkens back to when I had a “day job” as a bike messenger, cycling around the urban hills of San Francisco. That presented opportunities to study speed, strangers, and sweat.
This video features the talents of Jason Shuman and Felipe Torres as well as cameo appearances by Sean Connery, Ron Davis, Green Day, Chris Haggerty, The Ramones, Victor Valverde, and an assortment of bicyclists, dancers, homeless people, models, and skateboarders. Some of the photographs and videos are mine or were shot by Robin Mackey. The drawing of the crotchety, skinny man was drawn by Joe Sloan.
