The Royal Treatment

King Johnson -- the ruling class

On his living room wall, King Johnson's songwriter/bassist Chris Long has a painting of an outdoor scene of a picnic table along a river. For a moment, you don't notice that the chairs around the table have no legs; they hover in midair.

"I believe that was a problem with perspective," says Long, whose mother painted the picture, "so she ended up just cutting the legs off. I guess they wouldn't be real steady."

But for King Johnson, life's been much steadier than those floating chairs for a while now. Today, the band finds themselves on much more solid ground -- in fact, they're sitting in the catbird seat.

Every track on their first CD Cats and Dogs -- a searing compilation of hooky, blues-based tunes that sound by turns like Texas, Chicago and New Orleans -- is getting worldwide airplay. That's largely thanks to an aggressive policy of internet marketing, and record-company interest in the band, which is growing accordingly.

Meanwhile, back around town, King Johnson's been taking an increasing number of gigs both as headliners and openers. More and more regulars are starting to show up. Everyone dances. And a lot of them sing.

"It's quite a trip to look out at people and they're singing the words to your songs," says Long, 39. "We are starting to get our following now ... people are starting to seek us out, and they really pay attention."

Given the subtle glints of humor that flash through the songs, and their irresistible rhythms, that's little surprise. Long's writing history helps; he's been "infatuated with the idea of being a songwriter ever since I was 12 or 13 years old. That is a craft that takes a long time to perfect ... you write a lot of really stupid songs when you're 12 years old."

Not that Long is the only contributor to the songwriting process; it's much more collaborative, says KJ guitarist Oliver Wood. "Chris writes so much, but then he brings it to the table and it evolves as we all work on the arrangement of it."

Says Long, "The cool thing is it's not an ego thing where you go, 'I don't want you guys to change any of this.' It's more like, everything's open for discussion. Nobody gets their feelings hurt."

"He has been writing longer than any of us," says Wood. "That's only natural, though. He is older than all of us, after all."

Regardless of their ages, all five band members -- Long, Wood, drummer Greg Baba, trombonist Adam Mewherter and saxophonist John Longo -- have many years of playing behind them. That history emerges as a rock-solid musicianship that's come to characterize King Johnson. It's the bedrock that's allowed them to build their diverse body of music -- based on, but hardly limited to, the blues.

A shuffling New Orleans sensibility colors a lot of King Johnson tunes, owing chiefly to drummer Greg Baba, who spent his formative years hearing music there. "Just being around it all the time, being with those guys, you pick it up," he says. Baba's distinctive drumming style "opened up a new option that we hadn't considered before, rhythmically," adds Long.

Another smart move was the addition of a slick, tight sax-and-trombone section in early 1997. The horns, all agree, have added more spice to King Johnson's already tasty mix.

"The horns came in because we all wanted something more to it," says Wood. "With three guys, it's one-dimensional -- you can only do so much."

Long adds, "I think when they started, it breathed life into things, definitely. We certainly have been spoiled -- they've got such really good ears that it's like, just tell 'em what key it's in and away they go.

"It's weird to think of doing gigs without them now because they've become such a permanent fixture."

And though the band's career today is picking up steam, that wasn't always the case. In fact, Long and Wood had played together years ago as Bangstick, before Wood took another gig that prevented his continuing. And when the two did come back together, it wasn't long before burnout took its toll.

"We were playing a LOT, like every weekend, at some weird pizza joint or another, some place where you had to move the big screen so we could set up .... We've had really shitty gigs where NOBODY showed up, not one person ... the burnout factor got to be paramount. It just came time to stop for a minute and then start it over again."

This time out, KJ is selecting only the gigs they want to play -- those that advance them by helping to grow their fan base. "Since we picked it back up, we don't take a gig just to have a gig anymore," says Wood.

"We don't want to beat our heads against the wall like we did before," Long agrees. "I mean, if you're out on the road and playing gigs with some substance to them, it's a lot more worthwhile than driving six hours to go play a damn sports bar where nobody cares one way or another, because then you're not doing anything to help yourself.

"And ultimately, record companies look at that bottom-line stuff, how big of a fan base do you have."

With a broad, bottomless style that incorporates influences from Little Feat to Allen Toussaint to Stevie Ray, King Johnson's body of work appeals to many types of fans.

Says Long, "People are starting to come up to me all the time and saying, 'Man, your disc is my favorite disc.' I don't know if they're just being nice, but we hear that all the time, all the time."

"Our songs are certainly diversified compared to your typical blues band," he says. "With us you just never know what's going to happen next."

For starters, the band has a tentative distribution deal with Ichiban Records for their first CD. They've got material enough for a strong second CD, which is in the works. And their recent addition of a manager has allowed everyone to invent music instead of looking after the myriad of administrative details, says Wood.

"Getting management was really part of the way we're moving. That was really instrumental in last year's success, not just in getting airplay but in taking care of the things we don't do well or hate to do ... it's really working," he says.

"It does keep getting better and better," agrees Long. "There's some nights where the music is great, and there's the combo of that and the crowd and the energy -- but I hope we haven't hit the highest high yet."

Long is aiming for that high all the same -- it may be a song he's just completed, titled, "Working Sucks."

"It could be big -- it has universal appeal," says Long. "A song like that is probably going to be the next national anthem."

King Johnson appear Friday and Saturday, Feb. 6 and 7 at Fuzzy's Place, 2015 North Druid Hills. For more information call (404) 321-6166.