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Artist
Johnny Bertram
12+ albums
indie
about
Johnny Bertram grew up in Boise Idaho, later moved to Portland Oregon and now resides in Jackson Mississippi. Fresh off the cult success of his indie-folk/synth rock project SYNTHAR (a hit on mp3 blogs, which are for one kind of nerd, and NPR, which is for another kind of nerd) Johnny Bertram will release his debut EP, Sing Your Song, on the Esperanza Plantation record label, this summer. He is on tour from Jackson, MS (his current home) to Portland, OR (his former home), two cities which shape the music of Johnny Bertram and the Golden Bicycles on both the EP and forthcoming LP Days that Passed. Johnny is simply a great songwriter whose new recordings, thick and deep, combine the best of the soulful south, a la My Morning Jacket and Iron and Wine, with the creative rock of the Pacific Northwest on the Built to Spill and M. Ward tip. It’s got all the right stuff: harmonies, sadness, hope, accordion, banjo, mandolin, and a song with the lyric “kick that old school hi-hat” sung in a non-ironic way. I have heard people call Johnny’s voice “sexy” and “smooth” and once I made up the simile that he sounded like “alcoholic honey.” I think I actually stole this idea from someone else, but it totally works. Johnny is as much a singer as a songwriter, truly. To get excited about just one person with a guitar, what with all the magic computer sounds available nowadays is not easy, but man, dude is just Johnny Bertram, and he writes great songs and sings them with grace and ease.