Tonight’s mystery artist now leads a band he once left he is also credited with an acoustic guitar style which blends strumming and a percussion sound using the same guitar. Think you can guess his band or his name??

Let’s start with the band he co-founded, left and then returned to.  That would be The Doobie Brothers making the artist in question Tom Johnston. To date his off and on career with the Doobies spans four decades. His first departure from the band was caused by illness a, leading to the emergency hire of Michael McDonald as lead singer.

Wikipedia that credits Johnston with: “adaptation of his own acoustic guitar style, blending a unique strum and percussive accented rhythm at the same time on one instrument. This style, interwoven with melodic hammer-ons gave Johnston an early signature sound inside of popular 1970's rock music.”

During his years with the Doobie Brothers Johnston wrote many tunes still played today on I-95 including:

  • Listen to the Music
  • Jesus is Just Alright
  • Rockin’ Down The Highway
  • Long Train Running

And tonight’s featured song, China Grove

Here is a nice example of Johnston's credited acoustic style.

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