Mike Johnson is Country Music's No. 1 Black Yodeler. His Yodel Song Archives, containing 114 yodeling songs written and composed by him, are part of the Recorded Sound Reference Center's permanent collection in the Library of Congress.
There have been other Black Yodelers among the numerous Minstrel and Stringband acts between 1880 and 1925, like the famous Monroe Tabor, Beulah Henderson, Charles Anderson, and The Mississippi Sheiks. Then came Mike's personal friend, Korean War Veteran & Bronze Star recipient, McDonald Craig of Linden, Tennessee, who recorded briefly on Nashville's Gold Standard label during the mid-1960s and became the only Black Yodeler to ever win First Place at an Annual [1978] Jimmie Rodgers Yodeling Championship hosted by the Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian, Mississippi. Others along the way include Linda Martell, Stoney Edwards, and Slim Gaillard. None of them, however, have demonstrated Mike's unique versatility in combining the Jimmie Rodgers and Swiss yodeling styles.
On 1 September 2002 Mike Johnson was inducted into America's Old Time Country Music Hall Of Fame by The National Traditional Country Music Association at the 27th Annual Old Time Country Music Festival, in Avoca, Iowa.
Born in 1946, this Altar Boy, Eagle Scout [1960] and Camp Counselor, attended and graduated from Catholic Grade and High schools. He joined the U.S. Navy in September 1965 and served two Vietnam tours attached to the USS Constellation, CVA-64 from 1967 to 1969. Afterwards he also worked as a Bus Boy, Motorcycle Courier, Park Police Officer, Freelance Photographer, Driving Instructor and in September 1981 he became a long-distance trucker. Trucking, starting with Newlon's Transfer [1981 to 1995, the first of three companies] in Arlington, Virginia, would play a major role in establishing him on the Independent Country Music circuit.
His early influences, the Singing Cowboys like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Herb Jeffries [the only Black Movie Singing Cowboy] and the sound of the Steel Guitar paved his way to Country Music. He later honed himself on the music of Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Roger Miller. Mike says Roger Miller gave him the songwriting bug. "I just wanted to be a songwriter! But I've had to do everything else along the way to get there!"
Performing since the mid-1960s Mike went to Nashville in 1981 for his first professional recording session at Jim Maxwell's Globe Recording Studio on Dickerson Road. He booked a two-hour session and recorded five songs, from which sprang his first 45rpm single, "King Of The Fish/Please Don't Squeeze The Charmin" on his MAJJ Productions literary banner.
"I still regard this session as the best one I ever did!" Mike maintains.
When Globe Studio relocated outside Nashville in 1983, Mike over to Champ Recording Studio on Church Street where he met and mentored under Jim Stanton, founder and owner of the legendary Rich-R-Tone Records, and there continued to record his songs until Jim's untimely death in 1989.
"Jim taught me how Nashville clique thought and worked..." Mike acknowledges.
"Did You Hug Your Mother Today?" became his first radio hit in 1994, being the most requested song and playing for three weeks surrounding Mother's Day on Big John Baldry's Michigan Jamboree Radio Show, WBYW-FM 89.9 in Grand Rapids Michigan.
Mike also included in Pulitzer Prize Nominee, Pamela E. Foster's two anthologies about African Americans in Country Music. "My Country, The African Diaspora's Country Music Heritage" [ISBN-0-9662680-0-8 hardback] [ISBN-0-9662680-1-6 soft cover] and her 2000 "My Country Too, The Other Black Music."[ISBN-0-9662680-2-4 paperback]
In late November 2003 everything came to a sudden halt when three neck vertebrae collapsed on his spinal cord. He was treated at the Veterans Hospital in Washington D.C. and underwent surgery in January 2004 at the Veterans Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
Mike's yodeling song "Yeah, I'm A Cowboy" is one of 18 yodeling songs featured on the "Rough Guide To Yodel" CD, [RGNET1174CD] initiated by Bart Plantenga. Bart authored the 2004 Best Seller "Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo, The Secret History of Yodeling Around The World." [ISBN-0-415-93990-9
The 30 March 2007 Issue of Big-Mag #1, a Netherlands publication, featured Mike in a 5-page article [with 3 color photographs] written by Bart Plantenga. Mike has since been the subject of several of Bart's yodel-book lectures, complete with a PowerPoint Slide Show presentation with readings from the magazine article and other background notes.
So there you have it. Mike Johnson! Man of many hats, but always Mike Johnson!
Joe Arnold, Roughshod Records
Juanita is every bit a yodeler as her legendary yodeling father, Stew Clayton. This Canadian gal is also a very prolific songwriter with several CD albums under her belt.
Sonny Rodgers Yodelers Paradise Show at the August 2000 Avoca Old Time Country Music Festival. This 3-hour show was one of...
I wrote this song in high school back in 1965 and borrowed the music from Roger Miller's mega-hit. I'm having some fun in good company with the likes of the legendary Tom Swatzell, the Dobro King, Texas Jack, E.J. Peters, and Paul Martinez. Martinez sponsors the South Texas Stage, and in February...
Performed by 60/40: Hank Roesing (guitar/vocal, Michael Faubion(guitar/vocal), Howard Okland (percussion) and Boyd Penneywell (Bass. Eclectic Alaskan group playing original music. Hank wrote this song several years ago in honor of his Yupik Eskimo friends, Henry and Hilma Shavings. While living...
Hawaiian Music Video- The group "Hawaiian Soul" from Las Vegas performs the "Yodel" song at the Pure Aloha Festival 2007. Featuring the versatile voice of Janoe Kalawa, Hawaiian Soul is quickly becoming one of Las Vegas' favorite Hawaiian music groups. Saddle up and hold on tight! For more of the...
