After introducing his boys into the act, and continuing to perform as a family band, it’s Brad Johner’s sons who are now staking a more personal claim to Saskatchewan’s musical culture.
Originally from Midale, Brad rose in the Canadian country music charts in the 1990s with his brother Ken. A few years ago he incorporated his sons into the stage act as his band and assisting vocals.
Johner and his boys will be performing in Estevan on March 12 as part of the Farmers Appreciation night.
After a few years playing some 200 or more shows with Dad, Lucas, 20, Jesse, 19 and Quinn, 16, are in the process of recording their first album. Brad is producing, but he said it’s the boys’ style and Lucas’s writing that listeners will hear. He’s keeping his own country-based inflections to himself.
“I’m really excited about the tunes. They’re not country,” said Johner. “They’re more of a pop-rock sound. They’ve written a lot of songs. They’re five songs in, and I’m producing the record for them.”
The boys previously released a six-song album of covers, but this is their first foray into original work.
“We’re just having fun in the studio. We usually go in twice a week and cut stuff and go over it, arrange it and work with the band.”
Johner said Lucas, who grew up a little in the world of music, is further along than he was at the same age, and the quality of songs is high. When Lucas approaches hime with new music, it will already be a nearly complete piece.
“He comes up and he’s got a song that’s finished with a big hook line and a chorus and a bridge, and it sounds like a complete song, so it’s really easy to go into the studio and record it,” said Johner.
As part of this process, he then plays less of a guiding role, and is in more of a position to “corral” ideas and provide some focus.
“I don’t want to make the boys’ record sound like my record. I take it for what it is and try to really accent the real good parts to it. My idea is to incorporate the sound of their CD into who they are and what they sound like when they do a live show,” said Johner.
The three oldest sons have been playing with Johner for the last three years, and they are going to be continuing to perform with Dad.
Johner will also be performing with brother Ken during a Johner Brothers reunion show in Saskatoon this April. That will be a show complete with all the former faces from their decade and a half of touring together.
“We’re going to get all the guys who used to play with us during the 14 years we were on the road,” said Johner. “For some them, it has been along time. We’re going to get together and do some rehearsing.”
It’s not the band that’s out of practice, he noted. There’s really only one song from the Johner Brothers catalogue that he has regularly performed as a solo artist.
“We’re going to have to go over a lot of songs I’ve written over the years and figure out how they go. At the time, you play the songs so much, and now you go back to them and they’re like a new song again. You can see them through different eyes.”
He said live shows have always given the band an opportunity to perform songs in a slightly different way than their original recording, and he’s looking forward to doing that this spring.
“That first record that we did, the first few songs that were on the radio, were some of the first songs I’d written, and we always played on our own records. We were new to the studio, so there are lots of things that we would change, but at the time the recording was different, too,” said Johner, noting today a typical recording setup may involve just one microphone and a laptop.
Though the upcoming Estevan performance will be Brad and the boys, and not part of the reunion gig, Johner expects Ken will be back to perform some songs as well.
“Back in the day, when I played with my two brothers and my dad, we played some of those early farmer’s day shows, so it will be kind of neat to go back to this one.”
The 50th anniversary of the Farmers Appreciation Night will be held at Affinity Place on March 12, with the festivities beginning at 5 p.m.
