Mark Johnson - singer, songwriter and musical artist - listened to the radio, which fueled his dreams. The music he heard changed him, made everything clear. So it should come as no surprise that Johnson took up the piano at seven years of age, drums at nine, and guitar at twelve, at which point he was a year shy of emerging from the shadows of tween and emerging into the light of teen. When he was 18, he began releasing in Europe covers of popular songs of the day. Two years later, at age 20, he was a bona fide recording artist, signed to the prestigious Vanguard record label, the 1960s home of Joan Baez and a flock of revered folk artists, releasing his first record, Years. Quickly building on the Vanguard experience, Johnson became quickly proficient at writing songs that were recorded by artists as diverse as Robert Gordon, Greenwich Village pals the Roches (who recorded his gorgeous ballad "Love Radiates Around," a BMI best song award nominee), Paul Butterfield, Dave Edmunds, and the Smithereens (who essayed Mark's song "Groovy Tuesday," a co-write with the band's lead singer and songwriter Pat DiNizio, and Steve Forbert). Around this time, Mark and his band the Wild Alligators were achieving legendary status in the Village, packing them in night after night and gaining quite the fan base. Along the way, Johnson was getting equally proficient at home recording, pioneering multitrack techniques that today are the collective standard for both independent and major-labe