Hear Will Johnson’s Eerie Lament “Childress (To Ogden)”

Will Johnson is a master practitioner of the art song.

Whether writing for his former band Centro-matic, or for his various solo projects over the years, the Missouri native crafts tunes that read like the songwriting equivalent of cubism. His forthcoming album, titled Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm, continues in this abstract vein.

One of the standout tracks from the new record is “Childress (To Ogden),” a brooding, haunting affair that begins with a blood moon in the narrator’s window and a young wolf by his side.

“This song was born in a church parking lot,” Johnson tells American Songwriter. “It started as a examination of the narrator’s relationship with his immediate natural surroundings and intrapersonal entanglements, and moved to the eventual merging of his and a willing partner’s devil-may-care motives and physical needs. The goal that afternoon was to write a sexually-themed song in a church parking lot, and eventually leave its characters to face the strangeness of the next dawn.”

Listen to the track below. Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm drops March 24 via Undertow Records.

Tour Dates:
03.21.17 – Phoenix AZ @ Living Room Show
03.23.17 – Bakersfield, CA @ Living Room Show
03.24.17 – San Francisco, CA @ Living Room Show
03.25.17 – Petaluma, CA @ Living Room Show
03.26.17 – Reno, NV @ Living Room Show
03.28.17 – Eugene, OR @ Living Room Show
03.29.17 – Portland, OR @ Living Room Show
03.30.17 – Portland, OR @ Living Room Show
03.31.17 – Seattle, WA @ Living Room Show

04.01.17 – Boise, ID @ Living Room Show
04.02.17 – Cheyenne, WY @ Living Room Show
04.03.17 – Ft Collins, CO @ Living Room Show
04.04.17 – Denver, CO @ Living Room Show
04.05.17 – Albuquerque, NM @ Living Room Show

04.25.17 – Austin, TX @ 3TEN ACL with Bob Mould

06.01.17 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway*
06.02.17 – Indianapolis, IN @ White Rabbit Cabaret*
06.03.17 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern*
06.04.17 – Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel*
06.07.17 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom*
06.08.17 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair (Seated)*
06.09.17 – Montreal, QB @ Ritz*
06.10.17 – Toronto, ON @ Horsehoe*
06.13.17 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark*
06.14.17 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall (Seated)*
06.16.17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club*
06.17.17 – Maquoketa, IA @ Barnstormers at Codfish Hollow*
*with John Moreland