JOHNNY
BLACKTHORN
AMERICANA | FOLK | ROCK
Essence of Eleven Roads Home Album
The essence of this album is about home. What is it exactly and how is it accessed. In many ways, I’ve come to know home as a verb. It is the act of finding one’s center; the shedding of ego and expectations of others; the expectations we place on ourselves; shedding the longing that is inevitable when we rage against the present. A verb in the sense that the joy of life is in the journey, not the destination.
At the same time, home has been revealed to me to be a culmination of the many roads I’ve taken to find myself comfortable in my own skin. The songs on this album are just eleven distinctly different paths I’ve traveled to find home. It’s a place of simplicity that I was only truly able to access beyond the complexities of life - beyond the grandiose ideas and black and white truth that only youth allows - where I’ve been able to let go of the bondage of some old worn out shame to embrace forgiveness - where I’ve been baptized by a hard rain and can still see the light of come what may - delivered from an overwhelming need to be seen to a deep desire to see others.
Home is the balance at the horizon between night and day; the symbiotic relationship of light and shadow; a place where I can value the importance of darkness in finding freedom in the light. In a word, Home is serenity - and there are many paths that take us there. Only here have I been able to find peace in the many shades of grey.
Acknowledgments
Lyrics and music by Johnny Blackthorn (acoustic/harmonica), Produced by Johnny Blackthorn and John Edward Ross
To BJ Baartmans (various instruments)of Wild Studio Verband, Boxmeer NL, where the bones of the album began.
To John Edward Ross (arrangements/various instruments) of Studio Sassafras for bringing it Home.
To Hannah Jans for social media/branding/artist development
Go Polaris Studio: Graphic Design
Special thanks to Lisa Gossett, my partner on this journey Home
Raised on the wide horizons of the Mississippi Delta, Johnny Blackthorn's music explores the spaces between reckoning and release. His blend of Americana, folk, and rock draws on the grit of Johnny Cash, the spirit of Dylan, and the restless honesty of Springsteen, while carving out a voice all his own.
For Blackthorn, songwriting is less about answers than about asking the right questions about change, fear, forgiveness, and finding higher ground. His latest single Poster Child marks the beginning of a new chapter, produced in collaboration with John Edward Ross at Studio Sassafras in Houston. The result is unflinching songs that leave space for the listener to breathe, reflect, and carry the story forward in their own way.