Davey Johnstone has been Elton John’s guitarist for 50 years. He has also played with Alice Cooper, John Lennon, Stevie Nicks, just to name a few. In his role as Music Director for the “Rocket Man’s” concerts, Johnstone leads Elton’s live sound, as well as he has presented his perfectly placed guitar in some of pop music’s most famous songs.
On Deeper Than My Roots, his second solo release following 1973’s Smiling Face, Johnstone interjects his rich color palette of expertise across a dozen smart little ditties. More than competently aided and abetted by his kids — even the album sleeve artwork was conceived and designed by one of Johnstone’s kin —there is an overall feeling of unrushed guitar jangle, solid song-smithing and layered harmonies, mainly led by Johnstone’s youngest child, Elliot.
From the ‘easy’ beat of “Go Easy On My Heart,” Elliot’s strong lead vocals countered by his dad’s slide, to Johnstone managing simple electric bending blues on the instrumental “Waltz Disney,” and Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson guesting on the ballad, which might just be the best song here, the mournful “Melting Snow,” the listener gets a wide range of styles…and always expert playing.
As much as he knows where when and how to place the perfect guitar part, Johnstone knows a catchy melody. Songs like “Deeper” mine a sure deep strong Beatles-like vein (as surely does his keyboard-rich cover of the Beatles’ “Here, There And Everywhere”) while the chunky “Black Scottland” shows how well the man can find and flirt with dirty single-note dexterity. I’m not sure how much deeper Davey Johnstone’s roots go, but he gives forth a solid ‘tree’ of playing on Deeper Than My Roots.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
