GEORGE — Listening to Jack Johnson is like sitting on a warm beach, watching surfers ride the waves. On Saturday, he plays the Gorge Amphitheatre with special guest Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, plus guests Ron Artis II and Thunderstorm Artis. Tickets are $51 for general admission and available online at livenation.com.
“Surfing’s always first,” said Johnson in an article on the surf and outdoors website The Inertia, “even when recording albums.” That devoted surfing lifestyle hasn’t kept the singer-songwriter from pulling out his acoustic guitar to record seven studio albums, with a new release this year. Johnson, 47, started writing songs at age 12.
His first concert since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic was June 22, 2022, two days before the album release of “Meet the Moonlight,” produced by Blake Mills.
“With ‘Meet the Moonlight,’ I couldn’t help but be influenced by the worldwide pandemic and see the way people communicated about it,” said Johnson in The Inertia article. “There was fodder for cynicism and a little of all that creeps into the songs. Everyone was struggling to be more optimistic.”
The rest of this year’s tour takes Johnson to coastal Oregon, cities in California (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara) then to Australia and New Zealand — all good surf spots for the Hawaiian-born singer-songwriter.
Jack Johnson
Spotify
: 3.5 million followers
Albums
: Brushfire Fairytales, 2001; On and On, 2003; In Between Dreams, 2005; Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for The Film Curious George, 2006; Sleep Through the Static, 2008; En Concert, 2009; To The Sea, 2010; From Here to Now to You, 2013; All the Light Above It Too, 2017; Meet the Moonlight, 2022.
Label
: Brushfire Records/Universal Records/Everloving Records
Song
: “Better Together”
Lyrics
: “And oftentimes we’re lazy, it seems to stand in my way, ‘cause no one no not no one likes to be let down.”
Review: “The gentle songwriter pushes beyond feel-good stereotypes to look for small joys amid vexing times.” — Pitchfork.com
Ben Harper
Spotify
: 926,737 followers
Albums
: Welcome to the Cruel World, 1994; Fight for Your Mind, 1995; The Will to Live, 1997; Diamonds on the Inside, 2003; There Will Be a Light, 2004; Live at the Apollo, 2005; Both Sides of the Gun, 2006; Lifeline Tour Edition, 2008; Give Till It’s Gone, 2011; By My Side (Retrospective), 2012; Get Up!, 2013; Childhood Home, 2014; No Mercy in This Land, 2018; Winter is for Lovers, 2020; Bloodline Maintenance, 2022.
Label
: Virgin Records/Stax/EMI/Mad Bunny Records
Song
: “Diamonds on the Inside”
Lyrics
: “She’s only happy in the sun.”
Review: “A beautiful work examining the turmoil and dysfunction of American society. While it seems that an overwhelming sense of hopelessness might seem insurmountable, there’s always hope if we can still talk about the issues at hand.” — RiffMagazine.com
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