1.    Peace (Nightsong 1)
2.    FVX
3.    Atlantic
4.    Nightsong 2
5.    Missed Her On The Road
6.    Guests
7.    Nightsong 3
8.    Asylum Harbour *
9.    The Late Train **
10.   Nightsong 4
11.   A Light In The Dark Of Night
12.   Cimiez ***
13.   Saving A Life

All compositions by Josh Johnston except
* Josh Johnston & Stephen Joseph McArdle
** Roesy
*** David MacKenzie

Josh Johnston – piano

Produced by Josh Johnston
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Brian Masterson

The Shape Of Things sampler by joshjohnston

Where his previous CD Asylum Harbour hoped to answer (or at least voice in lyrics) some of the questions of his particular human experience, Josh’s 2010 CD came at a time when he realised that sometimes there are both not enough words and too many words to give us perpetual calm in this life – sometimes we need a moment of quiet. So here instead is a piano-solo CD recorded two days after the end of the big freeze in January 2010 in St. Peters’ Church of Ireland in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. The cover was designed by Keith Mullins using photographs taken by Will O’Connell.

The CD features 11 original compositions, a new composition by long-time collaborator David MacKenzie and a unique interpretation of The Late Traiin by Roesy.

Although there was a composed structure to all of the tracks, various parts of some of the tracks were improvised in the studio.

The idea of recording a completely instrumental album had been brewing for a while. Josh explains; “I’ve always put instrumentals into my live set as the piano and my piano style is such an important part of my sound and I knew people enjoy that side of my playing. A lot of people had been suggesting to me that I record a purely instrumental piano album but I always resisted as I could always hear other instruments in my arrangements and love working with other musicians but I was recording a follow-up to Asylum Harbour and when the lyrics were taking longer than I wanted for them to come, I decided to change tack and spend a day recording with Brian Masterson who I’d worked with before with David MacKenzie and on Asylum Harbour. We went to Drogheda to record some music piano solo – we had no preconceptions but to record whatever happened. The sound grew very organically from the beginning of the session which was right in the middle of winter and at the tail-end of a really cold snap. I think the atmosphere is really palpable from the tracks and that wintery feel informed my choice of cover art as well. By the end of the day we had 13 tracks and that was definitely a CD’s worth. I’m really looking forward to playing the music live.”

To buy ‘The Shape Of Things’ via PayPal, please click this button below.

These and other CDs featuring Josh Johnston and released by Shandon Records are also available from I-Tunes and www.shandonrecords.com.

**************************************************

1     Precious Days Indeed (Josh Johnston & S.J. McArdle)
2     Asylum Harbour (Josh Johnston & S.J. McArdle)
3     The Map (Josh Johnston & Anna Johnston)
4     Breathing Space (Josh Johnston & Elton Mullally)
5     In The Frame (Mark Conway & Paddy Slattery)
6     Lady MacDuff’s Lament (Josh Johnston)
7     Midnight (Nick Burrage)
8     Once I Was A Pretty Girl (Josh Johnston & S.J. McArdle)
9     Empty World (Josh Johnston & Diana Segara)
10     Swimming On The Moon (Josh Johnston & Anna Johnston)
11     The Forty Foot (Ronan Swift)

Produced by Josh Johnston & Eoin O’Brien
Recorded & Mixed by Eoin O’Brien
Mastered by Brian Masterson

Asylum Harbour sampler by joshjohnston

During his time working with Irish singer-songwriter Roesy (2001-2007), Josh had been writing songs and instrumentals with various co-writers and had been looking for ways to broaden the sound of his own music. In January 2008, he began performing his own material live with a new band formed from musicians he met and played with elsewhere. The concerts in Dublin were successful and in various music rooms, garages and bedrooms throughout Ireland, Josh and the band made a new CD, Asylum Harbour, a collection of original tunes inspired by the themes of home, identity and the search for calm in this mixed-up world.

To buy ‘Asylum Harbour’ via PayPal, please click this button below.

*******************************************************

Three Friends

Josh’s first CD, originally released in 2000, was recorded during a day’s free recording which was given to him by his sister. It is currently out of print.

1     Three Friends (Johnston)
2     By The Time I Get To Phoenix (Jimmy Webb)
3     Shadwell (Johnston)
4     The Organist’s Farewell (Johnston)
5     I Wish That I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (Richard Lamb & William Taylor)
6     It Ain’t Me, Babe (Bob Dylan)
7     Accentuate The Positive
(Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer)
8     Columbus (Noel Brazil)
9     Sunrise On The Mississippi (Bruce Cockburn)
10     Jazzchild’s Lullaby (Johnston)
11     Skylark (Hoagy Carmichael / Johnny Mercer)
12     The Skeams (Johnston)

Produced by Josh Johnston
Engineered & Mixed by Rodney Callan
at The Works, Dublin January – April 2000

Josh Johnston – Piano & Vocals
Jane Dalton – Vocals on Tracks 2, 7 & 11
Carole Nelson – Saxophone on Tracks 6 & 8

************************************************

1 Empty Bottle Blues (3′.29)
2 Helter Skelter (2′.52)
(David MacKenzie & Josh Johnston)
3 Here’s That Rainy Day (3′.23)
(Jimmy Van Heusen & Johnny Burke)
4 Whimsy (2′.13)
(David MacKenzie & Josh Johnston)
5 All Of Me (4′.21)
(Seymour Simons & Gerard Marks)
6 Heatwave (3′.27)
7 Claire (4′.37)
(Stephane Grappelli)
8 Avignon (2′.47)
9 Kalin (4′.33)
(Wm Statius-Muller)
10 Mojave (2′.54)
(Antonio Carlos Jobim)
11 Ava’s Song (2′.49)
(David MacKenzie & Josh Johnston)
12 Tout Sweet Blues (8′.05)
13 Kiss of Fire (3′.24)
(Angel Villoldo / Robert Allen / Lester HIll)
14 Honeysuckle Rose (1′.55)
(Fats Waller & Andy Razaf)
15 Parting Thoughts (3′.55)

Tracks 1, 6, 8, 12 & 15 Composed by David MacKenzie

Produced by David MacKenzie and Josh Johnston.

Engineered, mixed and mastered by Richard Duckworth
© Shandon Records 2004

‘These nicely played duets by MacKenzie and Johnston are a rather sentimental, nostalgic amalgam of Stephane Grappelli’s so called ‘gypsy’ jazz and the popular music of the 1920s and ’30s, with a dash of blues and Jewish melancholy. It’s best caught, paradoxically, in their own charming originals. Their classical background is evident in the care they take with the linear and harmonic nature of each piece.’
From the CD review by jazz correspondent Ray Comiskey in ‘The Ticket’ (The Irish Times supplement) of 19 November 2004

The tunes on this debut album by the duo covered all bases of their early repertoire; taking in their classical influences, blues music and latin jazz as well as the more traditional swing jazz angle of their performances. There are eight of David’s original compositions. Highlights among these include the epic Tout Suite Blues and the breezy swing of Avignon and Helter Skelter. David and Josh have also included a few surprises – check out Wilhelm Statius-Muller’s very rare piece Kalin (from his “Antillean Dances” suite) and an arrangement of the tango Kiss Of Fire (with some help from Georges Bizet).

The CD was recorded in May 2004 in RTE Radio Studios in Dublin and mixed later in the summer in various locations in Dublin. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by Richard Duckworth using mobile recording technology and software and an Apple Macintosh Computer. The design for the cover was created by the team at Slick Fish Design in Dublin from notes and sketches by Doireann MacKenzie.

CD- €15

Due to the high amount of non-original material, this recording is not available as a digital download.

1 A Midsummer Night’s E-Mail
2 European Union
3 Dancing
4 Adulterous Thoughts
5 You’re Havin’ A Baby
6 Farewell Future Wife
7 Advice For Lovers
8 An Awful Man On The Tottenham Court Road
9 Medley For My Minnelium Sweetheart
10 The Simpleton
11 Interrupted By Cattle
12 For All Lovers Of Music

You can hear tracks at http://www.myspace.com/ronanswift

Produced by Ronan Swift & Giles Packham
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Giles Packham
Manufacturing – Cino Resso Communications
Marketing – Shandon Records
© Ronan Swift 2009

Ronan Swift – Vocal, Acoustic Guitar
Dara O’Brien – Electric & Acoustic Guitar
Eoin O’Brien – Electric & Acoustic Guitar
Josh Johnston – Piano
Bill Blackmore – Trumpet & Flugelhorn
Malachy Robinson – Double Bass
Dermot Sheehan – Tablas
Chris Gavin – Additional Acoustic Guitar
John Gavin – Awful Man Anecdote

To order the CD, please click the link below.

The theme of Ronan Swift’s debut album is the old-fashioned business of courtship. It uses a variety of settings and approaches – musical, lyrical and conceptual – to capture the highs and lows of finding a soul mate (or even something less profound) in the first decade of a new ‘minnellium’.

From full band tracks to more intimate solo performances, from a Henry Purcell male voice choir to a 10 minute epic set on New Year’s Eve 1999, variety is the spice of this release.

Using different song styles, spoken anecdotes and Ronan’s naturally inviting storytelling lyrics, the listener is introduced to a colourful troupe of protagonists and onlookers. There’s the “west London fop” of You’re Havin’ A Baby, an Italian sweetheart in European Union, the Awful Man on the Tottenham Court Road, a national school mummy (Adulterous Thoughts) and a herd of Fresian cows (Interrupted By Cattle). Ronan is intuitive and versatile in his lyric writing; once wistful and poetic and then direct and bawdy, but always vivid and honest.

Ronan is joined on this CD by his long-time touring band – Eoin O’Brien (Kíla), Josh Johnston (Roesy), Bill Blackmore (Trihornophone) and Malachy Robinson (Irish Chamber Orchestra) – as well as guitarist Dara O’Brien. The album was recorded in a small Victorian chapel on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. It was co-produced by Ronan and sound engineer Giles Packham with the intention of capturing the natural acoustics of the church. The effect is spacious, live and effortless.

Ronan also features on Josh Johnston’s CD Asylum Harbour singing his own song “The Forty Foot”.