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Johnson is hoping for a spring release for his new CD (© Larry Marano /Retna Ltd./Corbis)

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"That's a strange one," he says. "It was supposed to be a vocal tune, but I could never get the vocals right, so I made it a slow, slide guitar instrumental song. 'Let's just play this on the backbeat,'" I said, "and we got a really great groove going down. It sounds real nice."

George Harrison figures in a song that Johnson wrote when the ex-Beatle died in 2002, but the guitarist doesn't expect it'll make the final cut. "It's a really cool kind of Beatles-y-song, but I don't have a great take of it," he says. "I have to learn not to be so precious about these things, but you know, I just don't feel right letting stuff out unless it's as good as I think it can be."

A stockpile of 100 songs

Expanding on his reputation as an eccentric, and intent on setting the record straight, Johnson says, "I'm actually pretty prolific. I have over 100 songs, but I just can't seem to get them recorded. It's almost like taking a water stream that's nice and flowing and productive, but then you try to run it through a ballpoint pen. And the thing is, I care too much to put out songs that I can't feel great about.

"Some people have a natural aptitude to play well. Other people have to struggle to play well. I fall somewhere in the middle. It doesn't come real easy for me."

"I think there's different levels to people's talent," he continues. "Some people have a natural aptitude to play well - they don't even have to think about it. Other people have to struggle to play well. I fall somewhere in the middle. It doesn't come real easy for me."

Even so, the guitarist whose art runs through his blood so deep and results in music as bold as can be imagined reasons that he can, in the future, make things a little easier on himself: "One thing I've noticed is that my records could be a little less polished. I think there's too many fingerprints on some of them; they're a little too manipulated. I've heard a lot of people say stuff like, 'Well, we like him live better than the records,' and I think what they mean is they appreciate the organic spontaneity that isn't so polished.

"In the end, though, the finished product is what matters, and I just can't lower my standards. I can't go, 'Oh well, I'm not in tune - whatever.' That isn't what turns me on. What turns me on is hearing a guitar with a great sound and played really, really great. That's what gets me up in the morning."

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