Lower Broad Blues (feat. Johnny Hiland)

#118 in The Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumentals Series, Lower Broad Blues, features the legendary Nashville picker, Johnny Hiland. Johnny grew up in Maine, with an eye disease called nystagmus (he's legally blind). He started playing guitar at age 2, played his first talent show at age 5, performed on Dick Stacey's Jamboree on local TV at age 7, and won Talent America at age 10, with sister Jodi and brother Jerry, "The 3 J's," playing bluegrass country. The 3 J's broke up when Johnny turned 15, due to his voice changing. Having picked up the electric guitar at the age of 12, Johnny left bluegrass and started playing country, rock, and blues. In 1996, Hiland moved to Nashville and worked as a session musician for country artists including Toby Keith, Ricky Skaggs, Janie Fricke, and Hank Williams III. Meanwhile, he played with the Don Kelley Band at Robert's Western World. Hiland signed with Steve Vai's Favored Nations label as a solo artist. After reaching the top of the heap, Johnny left Nashville for Chatham Virginia where he lives a simpler but no less musical life. He's released two records over the COVID "break" and also offers telecommuting session work (that's how we did this) and private instruction via Skype. Pretty cool to be able to study with a cat that was named one of the “Top 5 Best Chicken Pickers” by Gibson.com, one of the “50 Fastest Guitarists of All Time” by Guitar World Magazine, and, one of the “Top 3 Country Guitarists” in the 2017 Vintage Guitar Magazine Readers Poll. None of which is hyperbole. Enjoy!

The backing band on this track is Oakland Born/Nashville residing, funky MF, Derrek Phillips, (Gloria Gaynor, Robben Ford, Charlie Hunter) on drums, and myself on rhythm guitar and bass. The track was recorded at NTA, San Bruno, CA, The Phamily Room, Nashville TN, and Johnny's place in Chatham VA. Expertly mixed and mastered by the super bad, F. Reid Shippen.