This quite amazing musician first appeared to us as a part of the group Wandering Peggy at the Blues festival in Malmö 2016. He played a nice sounding acoustic guitar that drew our interest and led to a brief conversation with him. It turned out to be a custom-made Finnish guitar that now sadly has been stolen.
Christopher Johansson started out playing guitar in 3rd or 4th grade in the public school in Nol outside Gothenburg. “I had played a little before as my dad used to play. He plays guitar and sings in various dance bands and so. It was a very well-functioning small school with a various possibilities to practice various instruments. For a while I played the drums there. You could play in a band during school-time. Sometimes we had like a half-day when we could play concerts. I got hooked on the Sixties music early on, much thanks to my music teachers. But I had the feeling that the party was over when I got here, I was born I -85. Now I work occasionally at the Culture School and I notice that youngsters today still want to play that kind of music.”
Q: “So how did you finally end up in this context, the acoustic oldtime music?”
CJ: “I listened a lot to various Grunge Bands and I wanted to find out more about the backgrounds, the origins of that music. Who were their idols? Like Thåström (Swedish punk rocker) had Rolling Stones as idols and they had Muddy Waters. Muddy was discovered when Alan Lomax was searching for Robert Johnson, and so forth. Something that shook me in my roots was when I saw Kelly Joe Phelps play at a school in a nearby village. They must have had difficulties selling tickets because those of us who played guitar in school got free tickets. He played with his guitar on the lap and I was totally blown away. Then I was playing electric guitar and had a large Marshall stack. But that, for me, new music slowly got into my mind and enveloped me, so I sold the Marshall and bought myself an acoustic guitar. I got help from my music teacher to fins out how KJP had tuned his guitar. When I was 19 I became friends with Bror Gunnar Jansson, whom I still play with occasionally, and we sat up during the nights and kind of triggered each other with questions like ‘have you listened to this and that old record?’ His father who was a professional bass player in a blues band had a large record collection and we got hold of a box by Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Its was also something with the time; I saw the film O Brother Were Art Thou on the movie and Martin Scorcese’s Blues compilation on television. So there were many things that pushed me in that direction.”
Q: “When did you start your band Wandering Peggy?”
CJ: “Well, it was more Hannah Tolf who started it. We both studied at the conservatory here and knew of each other. She had played with Dick Ahlin, whom I thought was a great player, mastering slide and reso’s and so on. They seemingly fell out and so she asked me if I wanted to sit in with her. Felt kinda nervous, replacing such a famous guy. But she persuaded me which weren’t that difficult. It must have been like ten years ago or so.”
Q: “When you get gigs, is mostly with Wandering Peggy or is as a solo artist?”
CJ: “Definitely most solo performances. But I do play in another band as well called ‘Det Blev Handgemäng’ (There was a fistfight) with Bror Gunnar Jansson and two others. Same kind of music. I play a lot at Blues Dance festivals, something I didn’t know existed until a couple of years ago. Just me and my guitar and a lot of people dancing very slowly for hours.”
Q: “Could you tell us something about your guitars and which is your favorite guitar?”
CJ: “Well I have a number of guitars. I tend to prefer a bit older American junk guitars like Harmony and Silvertone. I’ve got one from the ‘40ties with the name National New Yorker on it but it’s built at the Valco factory. I think Gibson built the body for them. It’s an arch top. When I tried to Google for information about it I was redirected to a Wikipedia page. There was a picture of me playing it. So I didn’t get any more information. The Finnish guitar you asked about was named Pick and was a clear favorite. It was an unusual build with a spruce top and sides of mountain ash. I hope the one who nicked it is appreciating it as much as I did, and that you are both well!
Q: Your absolute favorite artist all time?
CJ: Blind Willie Johnson. Imagine sitting beside him and playing Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground!
Q: Who would you like to invite to play with if you could choose freely?
CJ: Oh, that was a difficult one. Tom Waits maybe?
Note from August 2024:
CJ has since the interview formed another group, called ”Black Cat Bone”, an electric group with three most competent guitars, focusing on a new explanation of the old blues tunes.
