Kevin Royal Johnson

Johnson was raised and educated in Van Buren, Arkansas until the age of 10, when he moved to Little Rock where he lived until the age of 18. He attended Little Rock Central High School and then moved to Nashville, to attend Vanderbilt University, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1984.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

Johnson is the author of three books, The Celluloid Paper Trail: Identification and Description of Twentieth Century Film Scripts, The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir 1940–1949 and The Dark Page II: Books That Inspired American Film Noir 1950–1965.{{cite web|url=https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/200907/dark_page-1.phtml|title=Reading in the Dark: A Sneak Preview from Kevin Johnson's Film Noir Opus, The Dark Page, Vol. II|website=Fine Books Magazine|accessdate=April 28, 2017}} All three books were published by the Oak Knoll Press.{{cite web|last1=Burroughs Hannsberry|first1=Karen|title=A Noir Banquet: The Dark Page and The Dark Page II|url=https://shadowsandsatin.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/a-noir-banquet-the-dark-page-and-the-dark-page-ii-2/|website=Shadows and Satin|accessdate=April 28, 2017}}

Johnson has taught on the subject of film script identification at Yale University, UCLA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.

Johnson founded Royal Books, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland in 1998.{{Cite web|url=http://www.abaa.org/bookseller_interview/details/kevin-johnson-royal-books-inc|title=Kevin Johnson|website=ABBA.org|publisher=The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America}} He has been a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America since 2002 and between 2007 and 2013 was on the faculty (and subsequently the director of) the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar.{{cite web|last1=Stark|first1=Craig|title=An Interview with Kevin Johnson of Royal Books|url=http://www.bookthink.com/0154/154low1.htm|website=Book Think|accessdate=April 28, 2017}}

Johnson began playing music as a solo performer while at Vanderbilt, and in 1984 moved to the Washington, DC area, where he played the pub circuit, most notably with singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter.{{Cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/02/08/mary-chapin-carpenter-rocking-at-the-lyric-but-country-to-the-core/|title=Mary-Chapin Carpenter: Rocking at the Lyric, but country to the core|last=Considine|first=J. D.|date=February 8, 1993|work=The Baltimore Sun}} He formed his first band The Revellaires in 1987, releasing one record entitled Pop of Ages.

In 1991 he formed The Linemen with Eric Brace,{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/01/21/x-boy-meets-x-girl/8df32e29-6ccd-4eb2-85ef-0e30b6bb9c5a/|title=X-Boy Meets X-Girl|last=Zibart|first=Eve|date=January 21, 1994|newspaper=The Washington Post}} Antoine Sanfuentes, and Bill Williams.{{Cite news|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1066557.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120110437/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1066557.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 20, 2018|title=Rockville Rocks; Linemen Lay It On|last=Zibart|first=Eve|date=May 24, 1991|newspaper=The Washington Post}} Between 1991 and 2001 the band released four records under Johnson's own SAM Records label, with new members Tony Flagg (bass) and Scott McKnight (guitar) replacing Brace and Williams in 1994, and adding James Key (mandolin) and Dave Giegerich (dobro, steel guitar).{{Cite web|url=https://www.nodepression.com/kevin-gordon-kevin-johnson-the-sutler-nashville-tn/|title=Kevin Gordon / Kevin Johnson – The Sutler (Nashville, TN)|last=Webber|first=Kim|date=August 31, 1996|website=No Depression}}

Johnson's first album with the Linemen, Memphis for Breakfast, was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, and produced by John Alagía.{{cn|date=August 2023}} Johnson's second album, The Rest of Your Life, was also produced by Alagía and designed by Jeff Nelson. Johnson's third album with the Linemen, Parole Music, was produced by Charlie Chesterman.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nodepression.com/kevin-johnson-still-on-the-linemen/|title=Kevin Johnson – Still on the Linemen|last=Lach|first=Michael|date=October 31, 1996|website=No Depression}}

In 2012, The Linemen reformed, adding Jonathan Gregg as a second lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and pedal steel guitarist, and with band alumni Scott McKnight (bass), Bill Williams (guitar, slide guitar, mandolin), and Antoine Sanfuentes (drums). In the fall of 2016 they released their first album, Close the Place Down, recorded by Andrew Taub at Brooklyn Recording and worked once again with John Alagia.{{Cite web|url=http://www.elmoremagazine.com/2016/10/premieres/the-new-linemen-make-heartache-red-hot-with-cold-water|title=The new Linemen make Heartache Red-Hot with "Cold Water"|date=October 10, 2016|website=Elmore Magazine}}

Johnson has performed (both solo and with the Linemen) on NPR's Mountain Stage as well as CBGB, 9:30 Club, the Modell Performing Arts Center, and The Birchmere.{{Cite web|url=http://www.glidemagazine.com/173603/song-premiere-linemen-deliver-alt-country-schooling-close-place/|title=Song Premiere: The Linemen Deliver Alt Country Schooling on 'Lineman'|date=October 11, 2016|website=Glide Magazine}}

The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir 1940–1949 was reviewed positively in Film Comment magazine,{{cite web|last1=Chang|first1=Chris|title=Kevin Johnson's The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir (1940–1949)|url=https://www.filmcomment.com/issue/january-february-2008/|website=Film Comment|accessdate=April 28, 2017}} and given 7/10 stars by PopMatters.{{cite web|last1=STERRITT|first1=DAVID|title=The Dark Page by Kevin Johnson|url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/the-dark-page-by-kevin-johnson/|website=PopMatters|date=March 2, 2008 |accessdate=April 28, 2017}} The first volume was blurbed by Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, who described the book as having "compelling reproductions of first edition jackets alternating with pithy, knowledgeable text about both the books and the films." Dave Heating from Erasing Cloud wrote that "it's one of those books that reminds you of the magic of books themselves,"{{cite web|last1=Heaton|first1=Dave|title=Review: The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir [1940–1949] edited by Kevin Johnson, foreword by Paul Schrader|url=http://erasingclouds.com/wk0208darkpage.html|website=Erasing Clouds|accessdate=April 28, 2017}} and Laura Rattray of University of Chicago Press' journal The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America called the book "a visual feast."{{cite journal|last1=Rattray|first1=Laura|title=Review: The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|doi=10.1086/680608}}

Film critic Leonard Maltin wrote that The Dark Page II: Books That Inspired American Film Noir 1950–1965 "has much to offer, both as a reference and as a source of sheer pleasure."{{cite web|last1=Maltin|first1=Leonard|title=The Dark Page II|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2009/12/the-dark-page-ii-179474/|website=IndieWire|accessdate=April 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501070402/http://www.indiewire.com/2009/12/the-dark-page-ii-179474/|archive-date=May 1, 2017|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Maltin|first1=Leonard|title=Review: Books That Inspired American Film Noir (1950–1965)|url=http://leonardmaltin.com/the-dark-page-ii/|website=LeonardMaltin.com|date=December 11, 2009 |accessdate=April 28, 2017}}

• {{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Kevin |title=The Dark Page: Books that Inspired American Film Noir (1940-1949) |date=2008 |publisher=Oak Knoll Press |isbn=9781584562177 |oclc=244223210 |language=English}}
• {{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Kevin |last2=Gregory |first2=Dan |title=The Dark Page: Books that Inspired American Film Noir (1950-1965) |date=2009 |publisher=Oak Knoll Press |isbn=9781584562597 |oclc=836965209 |language=English}}
• {{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Kevin R |title=Celluloid Paper Trail |date=2019 |publisher=Oak Knoll |isbn=9781584563792 |oclc=1104409340 |language=English}}

• Pop of Ages (1987), Top Records

• Memphis for Breakfast (1991), SAM Records
• The Rest of Your Life (1994), SAM Records
• Parole Music (1997), SAM Records
• Sunday Driver (2000), SAM Records
• Various Artists Americana Motel (2001) – compilation on Bay Gumbo Music

• Close the Place Down (2016), SAM Records

{{Reflist}}

• https://www.royalbooks.com/

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Category:1961 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American writers

Category:American country guitarists

Category:American male guitarists

Category:20th-century American guitarists

Category:20th-century American male musicians