The Johnny Hiland Band

Saw this group at the Minnesota State Fair for a 45 minute set. They were high energy, loud and probably played 6 songs for the whole set. Although Johnny was a decent singer it seems that guitar players make the songs too long. He is a fast, articulate picker and had a 3 piece backup, all good musicians. As many of you know he no longer endorses PRS but was playing a Music Man Silhouette with blade pickups through a Fender twin reverb amp. He also did some slide work on a Blues number, very cool slide work. This guy can play.-- Darwin

Edit, Interesting that none of these guys had guitar hard cases. They all had quality gig bags and carried them in over their shoulder. I think that says something for gig bags.

Last edited by darwinohm on Tue Aug 28, 2012 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

those are the d allen johnny blades pickups. very nice pups indeed.

Thanks Louis, are they offered in a Music Man model or are they a custom for Johnny?

Thanks Louis, are they offered in a Music Man model or are they a custom for Johnny?

d allen offers them separately. he puts them in for johnny. i have 9 sets of pups by him.

No doubt that Johnny is one bad mofo on the guitar. I saw him play several times in Nashville before he released hist first CD. A very good friend of mine played bass for him live and on the demo recordings that got him picked up by Steve Vai. Unfortunately, Vai had a different bass player in mind for the recording of that first release, so my friend lost out on a great opportunity.

Gig bags can be the way to go if you are one the move a lot and keep your ax with you AT ALL TIMES! I go back and forth on the case/gig bag thing a lot.
....and Johnny is a killer player!

Johnny plays great for being legally blind or not for that matter. Here is a video of Johnny being interviewed and teaching some of his techniques: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21089979