Today, Canyon City, aka songwriter Paul Johnson, released a new EP, Matinée, via Nettwerk, premiering the track “So Are We” yesterday via Under The Radar. Additionally, Johnson recorded “So Are We” live in-studio for The Bluegrass Situation. Discussing the collection, recorded and self-produced by Johnson in his Ft. Collins home studio space, he notes, “Some of these songs end in hope, some in despair, but I hope that they all are able to keep folks company (or maybe ask for that company myself) in the brutal and beautiful experience of being human in an unfamiliar season. When it’s hope, I’m trying to remember and hold on to it. When it’s despair, I’m going to travel through it.”
The songs on Matinée were, of course, born out of the pandemic isolation, though doubled for Johnson by the fact that he and his wife had just uprooted from Tennessee to Ft. Collins, just prior to the lockdown. They had each other and a vast expanse of wilderness around them to discover. Johnson found the period reflective, and while difficult… ultimately a space for creative exploration.
The record is meant to play out like an old movie, flickering in the dark of a theatre, on a bright afternoon. It explores the distortions of memory, through the filter of nostalgia. Discussing Johnson continues, “One of the overarching themes plays on the sweetness and the distortion of memory. Those memories bounce around and are filtered through the lens of our own experience, which inevitably distorts them in some form or fashion. The title evokes the idea of a midday daydream playing out like a movie.”
Matinée follows Johnson’s 2019 LP Bluebird and 2020 EP, Circling The Sun, which American Songwriter called, “contemplative and utterly minimalist, Johnson’s music puts his heart directly in the spotlight.” After eclipsing 250 million-plus streams and receiving acclaim from NPR, Paste, amongst others, Johnson preserves and shares his own experiences within these six tracks.
