To hear my interview with my guest Greater Chicago native and singer/songwriter Jeff Johnson please go to http://InternetRadio.CruiseWithBruce.com/music/
 
 Thanks for watching, I’m Bruce Oliver with the Cruise Radio Network and host of the Cruise with Bruce Internet Radio show.  

 

Singer/songwriter Jeff Johnson was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago in the 70′s and first started playing the piano with his brother when he was 9 years old. Bacharach and David, the Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bee Gees, Elton John and others influenced their song writing and playing since then. In the late 80′s they formed the Chalk Farm band which enjoyed much success in the Chicago club scene, headlining at the legendary Cabaret Metro and Park West among other venues.

      After Chalk Farm broke up, Jeff moved to Los Angeles and found success as a dance music artist in the mid 90′s with two club hits – his own song “Whenever You’re Lonely” and a dance cover of the Bee Gee’s “How Deep is Your Love” which appeared on over 30 compilation albums in Asia. Both singles were released on his own Interhit Records label founded along with his partner remixer/producer Chris Cox. While running Interhit he also wrote songs for Englebert Humperdink’s Dance album in 1998 and co-wrote the album cover hit “Try Me” for Japanese artist Mylin’s Beautiful album in 1999.

     Between 1999 and 2008 Jeff ran label/distributor Megahit Records when he found the long lost songs that he and his brother wrote when they were younger. Over the next couple of years Jeff worked to remix the material for release and wrote 20 new songs. With the help of several musicians from R&B legend Bobby Caldwell’s touring band including Jean McClain (aka Pepper Mashay the lead singer, drummer Johnny Friday and guitarist Carlyle Barriteau, bassist Reggie McBride and recording studio owner Carmen Grillo they worked on his new album “Shine”. Jean McClain brought in Marcellina Hawthorne and both handled background vocals while Carmen brought in Alex Wurmbrand, Paul Henning, Alwyn Wright and Maxim Velichkin to lend their talents on strings. Renown horn players Greg Adams, Michael Paulo and Lee Thornburg as well as organist Joey Navarro added to the collaborative efforts.