Johnny Z

Story

I began my professional music career back in the the late 1960s, as part of a folk duo, Jon and Thomy. The misspellings of our names was the inspiration of our manager, David R. Lyons. We performed together for about two years, at which time Thomy (he permanently adopted the new moniker) headed to Tennessee to seek greener pastures. I stayed and David built a rock band he dubbed Nirvana (long before Kurt Cobain and his bandmates toke the name). I never embraced the "Jon" designation and eventually began using my birth name, Johnny. Through the ensuing years, I performed as a solo artist, punctuating it with various band iterations, the longest of which was Johnny Z and the Spotlights. (we performed together for the better part of 40 years, though I had forays with other artists, as well as continuing my solo work. Throughout the entire time I pursued recording the songs I had put to paper. In all, I released three solo (En Route, Skiffle, Mind the Gap), three vocal band (Uptown, midpoint@millpondpark, Coda by Johnny Z and the Spotlights) and two instrumental band albums (Dismissed as Lightning, LoggerRhythms). Additionally, I've released six singles, as a solo, over the years (My Montgomery Baby b/w L. Elaine, Daddy Was a Rounder, Go Away, Rona!, As Darkness Falls, What Sounds Good Tonight?) The pandemic took a particularly hard toll on my performances, so I turned to writing and recording. Not only did I release two albums and three singles mentioned above, but I took the initiative to release one album and will soon release another by past bandmates who are no longer with us. I'm currently in the midst of recording an all new album, for which I've yet to settle on a title. Much of it has been completed and I'm looking to an early 2022 release date, for it. My solo albums and singles have been widely distributed on all major streaming and download services. These and many others are also available via the Spotlight Recordings Bandcamp page.

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