Eric Johanson is an Alexandria native who picked up his first guitar at five and was gigging with older players as a teenager, working his way from Louisiana clubs to Beale Street in Memphis. A taste for heavy, muscular rock — Tool, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails — sits alongside the blues in his playing, giving his songs a crunch that stands apart from the Delta-traditional crowd.
Hurricane Katrina wiped out nearly everything Johanson owned, and he spent four years abroad before settling in New Orleans, where he became a first-call session man and sideman — backing Anders Osborne, Cyril Neville, Terrance Simien, and Corey Henry around town. Tab Benoit brought him out as a touring guitarist and offered him his first record deal, and Johanson’s 2017 solo debut Burn It Down announced a voice of his own: gritty, melodic blues-rock with a songwriter’s eye. The pandemic years found him livestreaming from home every week — sessions that later became his Covered Tracks volumes — and in 2021 he signed with Ruf Records.
The Deep and the Dirty, cut live in two days in a Mississippi studio with producer Jesse Dayton, put Johanson at the top of the blues charts and earned him spots on Total Guitar’s 100 Greatest Blues Guitarists list and Guitar Player’s 25 Best New Blues Guitarists. His live album Live In Mississippi (2025) kept the streak going, and a new studio record, The Open Bayou — a heavier, more psychedelic set cut with producer Bill Skibbe — arrives October 16, 2026 on Johanson’s own Levee Ward Records. However you catch him, bring earplugs and expect the guitar to do the talking.
