By Eric Johnson’s standards, the five-year gap between 2005’s Bloom and 2010’s Up Close is swift.
It’s the shortest time between albums since Ah Via Musicom followed Tones by a mere four years and although Up Close could hardly be called spontaneous, it does have a looseness that’s often absent in Johnson’s work, perhaps because it trades so heavily on the guitarist’s Texas roots, a point he underscores by having songs called “Texas” and “Austin.” Naturally, this means there’s a bunch of blues on Up Close, which finds room for cameos by Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughan, Jonny Lang, and Sonny Landreth, but even these moments don’t bear much grit because dirt is not part of Johnson’s repertoire.
He prefers clean and sculpted, an aesthetic that runs from his tone to his rhythms.
He remains indebted to the fusion etched out by Jeff Beck on Blow by Blow but he no longer is taking it to the extremes, as when he divided Bloom into movements.
Up Close is merely Eric Johnson served straight-up: it is not far removed from the feel of Ah Via Musicom, lacking only the major melodies that sucked in crossover listeners, but Johnson’s journey is not one of innovation, it’s of refinement and he continues to find interesting ways to hone his specific craft on Up Close.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AwakenEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 01:04 | 2 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | FatdaddyEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 02:44 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Brilliant RoomEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 03:53 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | TexasMichael Bloomfield, Buddy Miles | Eric Johnson | Play | 06:02 | 13 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | GemEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 04:10 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | TraverseEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 01:18 | 2 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | AustinEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 04:01 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Soul SurpriseEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 06:11 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | On the WayEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 03:09 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | ArithmeticEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 04:32 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | The Sea and the MountainEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 01:50 | 4 MB | 0 MB |
| 12 | VortexanEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 03:04 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 13 | A Change Has Come to MeEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 05:20 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 14 | Change (Revisited)Eric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 01:39 | 3 MB | 0 MB |
| 15 | Your BookEric Johnson | Eric Johnson | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 53 mins | 122 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roscoe Beck | Arranger, Bass |
| 2 | Michael Bloomfield | Composer |
| 3 | Kyle Brock | Bass |
| 4 | Tom Burritt | Percussion |
| 5 | Kelly Donnelly | Engineer, Mixing |
| 6 | Jason Eskridge | Vocals (Background) |
| 7 | Brad Evilsizer | Percussion |
| 8 | James Fenner | Percussion |
| 9 | Jim Gaines | Producer |
| 10 | Kevin Hall | Drums |
| 11 | Steven Hennig | Guest Artist, Guitar |
| 12 | Andy Johns | Mixing |
| 13 | Eric Johnson | 6-String Bass, Arranger, Bass, Composer, Coral Sitar, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Hammond B3, Lap Steel Guitar, Mixing, Percussion, Piano, Piano (Electric), Primary Artist, Producer, Quotation Author, Radio, Vocals |
| 14 | Sonny Landreth | Guitar |
| 15 | Jonny Lang | Vocals |
| 16 | Chris Maresh | Bass |
| 17 | Buddy Miles | Composer |
| 18 | Steve Miller | Vocals |
| 19 | Malford Milligan | Vocals |
| 20 | Richard Mullen | Arranger, Engineer, Mixing, Production Assistant |
| 21 | Gary Paczosa | Mixing |
| 22 | Park Street | Photography |
| 23 | Oliver Rajamani | Sarod, Sitar, Tabla, Vocals |
| 24 | Frosty Smith | Drums |
| 25 | Tommy Taylor | Arranger, Drums, Percussion |
| 26 | Kelley Ian Toombs | Package Design |
| 27 | Jimmie Vaughan | Guitar |
| 28 | Jim Wilson | Mastering |
| 29 | Red Young | Hammond B3 |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |