Doug Scharnberg

Singer and guitarist Jobuk Johnson draws on traditional styles of country and jazz guitar from
the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s and synthesizes them into a virtuoso style of playing in which bass,
chords and melody are played simultaneously on the instrument. Jobuk uses this virtuoso
style of guitar to accompany a strong clear voice which he developed from years of singing
and playing without amplification for the tourists and locals down on the Rio Grande where
you had to sing loud enough to be heard over the sometimes howling desert wind. “It was great
training playing acoustically for so many years” says Jobuk, “I learned how to use my voice and
how to get a good tone out of my guitar like they used to back in the stage and radio days when you
weren’t plugged in; you played acoustically or you just stood up to a microphone. There’s a
richness in tone from this simpler approach for which there is no electronic shortcut.”
Jobuk grew up in a musical family whose roots extend back to the Western Kentucky soil that
produced such artists as Bill Monroe, the Everly Brothers, and the seminal guitar influence
Merle Travis. Jobuk’s dad was an accomplished bassist and guitarist who played the country club
circuit from the Chicago area to the Catskills. Jobuk didn’t see a lot of his dad but when he did,
he got him to show him songs on the guitar. “My dad showed me how to play a Les Paul tune
called ‘Bye Bye Blues’. He taught it to me in a chordal style reminiscent of the old dixieland
banjo players. I had started playing fingerstyle guitar after hearing the folk music of Peter, Paul,
and Mary and the song ‘Classical Gas’ by Mason Williams. Then a few years later I discovered
Chet Atkins which really changed my musical life.”
Jobuk’s passion for the guitar led him to attend the Guitar Institute of Technology; a world
reknowned school for guitarists in Hollywood, California which was founded by jazz guitar
legend Howard Roberts. While at the school Jobuk became inspired by the beautiful chords
that he heard in the playing of some of the jazz masters he encountered there.He learned everything
that he could about chords while he was there but left the school with more questions than when
he went in. “I wanted to find out how many chords there are.” Jobuk’s desire to find answers
to his questions motivated him to move down to the Rio Grande and resume his studies in the
tranquility of the Chihuahuan Desert. In the following years Jobuk developed a mathematicallygenerated
system of chord voicings which became his “teacher” and helped him to find those
beautiful chords which lend so much expression to his playing. Jobuk downplays his scientific
approach to learning. “ When I play I don’t think about any of that, I only try to convey the
feeling of the music.” he says.
When Jobuk plays guitar it sounds like Chet Atkins sitting in with Bob Wills. His voice
has been described as being reminiscent of a young Willie Nelson. Has all that study made
Jobuks music less accessible? Jobuk doesn’t think so. “To me there’s nothing more elegant than
a simple country song.”
Jobuk Johnson ( Doug Scharnberg)