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Michael Johnathon

Every Monday night, musical history is made as the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour begins its regular radio and television broadcast at the Kentucky Theatre.  Tour buses deliver visitors from faraway places; crowds scramble for good seats.  Volunteers wearing black shirts finish their sound checks and adjust their cameras.  The house is packed as stage lights dim. Woodsongs’ founder, Michael Johnathon, comes onstage and introduces himself as a folksinger, songwriter and tree hugger.  What he doesn’t say is he’s also a playwright, producer, author and touring artist.  Johnathon has a worldwide radio audience exceeding a million listeners each week.

This “Woody Guthrie in a Cyber World” grew up in upstate New York along the shores of the Hudson River. At 19 years old, he moved to the Mexican border town of Laredo, Texas and found a job working as a late night DJ on KLAR-FM. One night, he played Turn, Turn, Turn by the 60’s folk rock group, The Byrds. As the song played, he recalled seeing Pete Seeger and Harry Chapin performing in his Dutchess County hometown.

By the time the song ended, he decided to pursue a career as a folksinger.  Two months later, he bought a guitar and a banjo and settled into the isolated mountain hamlet of Mousie, Kentucky.  For the next three years, he traveled up and down the hollers of the Appalachian mountains learning the music of the mountain people.  Michael experienced hundreds of front porch hootenannies where folks would pull out their banjos and fiddles, and play the old songs that their grandparents taught them.

He performed two thousand “Earth Concerts” at colleges, schools, fairs and benefits.  By the time Johnathon settled in Lexington in 1988, he had drawn international attention from the press and had performed for more than 2 million people.  He has been featured on CNN, TNN, CMT, AP, Headline News, NPR, Bravo and the BBC.


WoodSongs now has nearly 500 radio affiliates, the Internet, podcasts and XM Satellite Radio.  The television version is available to 300 PBS stations.  What hasn't changed is Johnathon’s focus on providing a showcase for grass-roots musicians who, like him, make their living on a scale much smaller than that of bands filling stadiums.

His 2007 release Walden: The Earth Song Collection brings Johnathon’s career around full circle.  The 11 tracks are recorded with vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo, flutes and a string quartet.  This album reflects the many emotions that Henry David Thoreau stirs in Johnathon as a songwriter.  Supporting the album on tour, Michael’s concerts are poetic and passionate, usually performed with guitar and banjo.

“Take the inventiveness of Bob Dylan, the melodic voice of John Denver, add the showmanship of Garrison Keillor and that’s Michael Johnathon.”  Bob Spear, Heartland Review

"He is one of the few performers today who understands that the music of the future must respect the music of the past.  His strong understanding of the centuries-old folk tradition is a breath of fresh air."  Phil Shapiro, Bound for Glory

“Michael Johnathon is a consummate musician, a singer and songwriter with something to say.”  Joe Ross, Bluegrass Now

“He stretches the folk category with the range of his concerns to the complexity of his musical arrangements.  His songs have a compelling directness to them.”  Ed Morris, Billboard