For more than three decades, Johnson has been a steady, prolific presence in the Texas music scene. In 1991, he broke out with alternative rock band Funland, and was the leader of beloved indie-rock act Centro-matic and alt-country outfit South San Gabriel. He’s also worked with Jason Molina, David Bazan, Matt and Bubba Kadane, Vic Chesnutt, Mark Eitzel, Jim James, Jay Farrar, Bob Mould, Jason Isbell, John Moreland and many other iconic American songwriters. He makes folk art paintings centered on historical baseball figures, which have been shown in galleries across the country. In 2020, he published his debut novel, If or When I Call. 

As much as Johnson reveres our nation’s iconography and folk traditions, he also doesn’t shy away from interrogating the uglier sides of the American experience. Throughout No Ordinary Crown, he chronicles unsavory tourists and the hypocrisy and blind excess of capitalist society. But he does so with the dark humor and moral resolve of the best Southern Gothic writers. “I was a high fashion wretch / Arm in arm with a blissed-out fool,” he sings on “In Granada” over twinkles of plucked guitar, a character study and composite of archetypes he observed while touring through Spain over the years.   

“Somewhere along the line someone advised me to never be afraid to hurt my characters, that I will always be able to get them out of it,” he says. “I do want there to be these small victories and small portals of hope.” With No Ordinary Crown, people may behave badly, and the road may get rough, but the reward is in the journey.