Country Music Carolyn Dawn Johnson headlined at the
2007 Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee
Carolyn Dawn Johnson was born April 30, 1971, in Grand
Prairie, Alberta, and raised on a farm in Deadwood,
Alberta. She was surrounded by music from a young age --
listening to her parents' Jim Reeves and Don Williams
records, singing at church functions and school plays,
playing piano and continually singing around the house.
As she got older, she found herself drawn to a wide
range of artists from Charley Pride and Marty Stuart to
Fleetwood Mac, Jann Arden, Abba and Matraca Berg. She
wrote songs, made her own recordings at home and
attended every concert she could. In college, she
studied non-music courses but continued to sit in with
hometown bands at night.
In
1992, she moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, to
attend recording engineering school. Learning the
technical aspects of the business by day and continuing
to write songs and work as a waitress at night, she
studied Billboard and Music Row magazines
each week to learn about the business. Intrigued by a TV
commercial on TNN, she sent away for a songwriting
video, featuring hit Nashville writers, to learn more
about the craft. Through the video, she joined the
Nashville Songwriters Association International and
traveled to Nashville for the first time in 1994 to
participate in one of its workshops. For three years,
she commuted the 3,000 miles between Vancouver and
Nashville until she obtained a work visa and moved to
Nashville permanently in 1997. She began singing demos
for other writers and began writing with some of them.
Late in 1997, she signed a publishing deal with Patrick
Joseph Music, home to one of her heroes, Matraca Berg.
In between gigs, she waited tables and tended bar at
Phil Vassar's Hard Day's Night Club. Next, she sang as a
studio vocalist on albums for Patty Loveless, Martina
McBride, Mindy McCready, Loretta Lynn and Kenny Rogers.
Writing credits followed for Kathy Mattea, Pam Tillis,
Linda Davis and more.
Then in 1999, she earned a record deal, one of her
compositions became a No. 1 hit (Chely Wright's "Single
White Female") and she toured as backup singer and
guitarist for McBride The milestones came quickly. She
was named Music Row magazine's Breakthrough Songwriter
of the Year in 2000, she toured behind Martina McBride
for a year, and eventually signed a recording contract
with powerhouse Arista/Nashville. Her first album, Room
With A View, bowed in 2001 and launched her first hits
as an artist including "Georgia," "I Don't Want You To
Go" and the top 5 smash "Complicated." Critical acclaim
and the approval of her peers poured in, and Johnson was
honored as the Academy of Country Music's Top New Female
Vocalist in 2002. The American Music Awards hailed her
as Favorite New Country Artist the following year.
CDJ performed on the
Frogtown Stage Saturday, May 19. |
