Take Note: Julie Johnson

In January, Julie Johnson released her first CD, Arrest, a fascinating experiment in using the flute to play such nonflute-like music as blues, jazz, flamenco, and folk. A teacher at MacPhail Center for Music, Johnson is currently working on a project involving songs sung by Minnesota miners and loggers.

GREW UP: Baudette, Minnesota—on the Canadian border.

THE NEW CD: My grant project was to do a CD that had different musical styles—blues, jazz, flamenco, folk—but based around the flute, which you don’t normally hear.

BLUES AND THE FLUTE: At my first blues jam, the guy at the door wouldn’t let me get onstage. Finally he relented, mumbling something under his breath like, “Bringing a flute to a blues jam is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.” Flutists don’t play the blues, but that’s what I want to do. I want to combine it all. That’s why everything on the CD is based on folk and street music.

HER SOUND: I play the flute differently from most classically trained flutists. My sound is different—it’s a little more raw than your typical classical sound, but more focused than a typical jazz sound. It’s somewhere in between.

INFLUENCES: I get my inspiration from singers and bands. Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Cash, Patty Griffin, Astor Piazzolla, Tom Waits—those are my influences.

CATCH HER ACT: Faculty recital, March 14; Bach’s lunch series with Patrick Harrison, April 3, Both at MacPhail Center for Music, 501 S. 2nd St., Mpls., julieflute.com