Nicholas Johnson - Southern Roots meets Midwest Rust Belt Rock

Cincinnati, Ohio: Where the south meets the Midwest. It’s also the best way to describe the music of Kentucky-born Singer/Songwriter Nicholas Johnson; Southern roots meets Midwest rust belt rock. On his first new album in two years, “Back Upstate” puts all of that on display by crafting a mix of heartbreakingly genuine songs and genre-bending rockers in the spirit of songwriting heroes like Tom Petty and Jeff Tweedy. “Back Upstate” (Ninja Jam Records, 2021) finds him revisiting his debut album “Upstate”. What began as a fun COVID concept, found legs and evolved into fully formed project. He enlisted the help of Producer and multi-instrumentalist, Rich Reuter, to help rearrange and re-record familiar songs in unfamiliar ways and adding a couple of new songs (“I’m a Ghost & “Nashville”). “Back Upstate” does some genre-hopping but it manages to find the sweet spot in each individual song to make it a cohesive album - it dips it’s toe in Brit Pop, Country, Bluegrass, and even a little Psychedelic Rock. In this new album Johnson shows off his evolution as a songwriter and ability to refine and polish old songs.