Story by Natalie Horner

Photo by Jenna Westover
If the look of Jason Johnson is surprising, his speaking voice is shocking. As vocalist, guitarist, and bassist of the blues punk duo Mudpuppy, Johnson growls his way through gritty songs, complete with a deep southern twang. A twang that’s completely absent from his surprisingly high-pitched speaking voice. Johnson and drummer Dustin Hanes joined up eight months ago to form Mudpuppy.
Natalie Horner: Where did Mudpuppy come from?
Dustin Hanes: Papa?
Jason Johnson: Yeah, I used to play with him. Before he passed away last year, the guy who owned [Papa’s Soul Food Kitchen & Blues Joint], we used to play music together. We did a bunch of cool stuff, played with bands like Hillstomp and Sassparilla. Yeah, it was just something we joked about a few times, it doesn’t have any deep meaning or anything.
NH: When do you remember first becoming really interested in music?
DH: Man, I was like four years old, I’d just bang on pots and pans. My parents would always have Saturday night music night, they would always play their vinyls and whatnot, and I was sitting there beating pots and pans to them.
JJ: I started messing around on guitar when I was like six years old. My dad was a guitar player, and the first riff he taught me was “Heartbreak Hotel”. I kinda got lucky, everyone in my family played something. My grandmother’s cousin was Hank William’s slide guitar player.
NH: How did you guys meet and get together?
DH: There’s this little bar called Mulligan’s. I walked in there one night and [Jason] was playing, and it was the trippiest thing. He was playing this cigar box guitar, he had a suitcase for a bass drum and some kind of rigged up thing for a tambourine down by his foot. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s a genius.’ I just happened to have some studio time the next day, so I asked [Jason], ‘Hey man, wanna come jam?’
JJ: It was rowdy that night. That was when the bartender told me to calm it down ’cause everyone was getting out of control [laughs]. Yeah, he told me he was a drummer, and I said, ‘Alright man, if you’re a drummer, here’s my bass drum, here’s my tambourine, I’ll go grab some spoons from the bartender. If you’re a drummer let me see it right now.’ We started playing shows a week later.
NH: How would you describe your sound?
DH: It’s changing. It’s going from like roots to more…
JJ: Rock music, basically. I finger pick in a real traditional Delta Blues kind of way, so I use my thumbs to pick out bass lines, and my fingers to pick out the melodies, while I sing. It’s basically blues music, but it’s kind of a blues/punk mix.
DH: Finger-picking blues punk.
NH: Who are your biggest influences?
DH: Oh man. As far as a drummer, Led Zeppelin, John Bonham. Like, I have a tattoo…I took it that far. I went there. And Dave Grohl. Dave Grohl got me into drums.
JJ: Bob Log. Have you guys ever heard of Bob Log?
NH: No….Bob Log?!
JJ: Oh man, you have to go home and look him up. He’s like the epitome of rock n’ roll. Bob Log III. First of all, he wears a spandex jumpsuit with his name on it. And he’s a one man band, so he’s got a bass drum and a hi-hat, and he wears a helmet. He wears this space helmet looking thing, with a telephone in front that’s his microphone.
DH: So I guess that influences us right there. Just letting loose on stage and having fun.
JJ: We’ve seen so many bands that are all serious. It’s like, why are you doing that if you’re not having fun? We get wild.
NH: So, Jason, you sometimes play homemade instruments. How did that come about?
JJ: Yeah, yeah. I saw a couple older guys that were building them here in town. It’s basically a cigar box, a piece of wood, and three or four strings. And I wanted one so bad, I kept coming to these guys shows, and trying to talk to them, and they wouldn’t tell me anything. So, four guitars later, I finally came up with a good one on my own, and it had a hand-carved real guitar neck with cut out peg heads and pearl inlays. I went all out.
NH: What are you working on right now?
JJ: Our second CD. Within the next three months or so, we’re going to go record that. I think we’ve got most of our songs together. It’s going to be all originals except for two songs.
NH: Those are all my questions. Do you have anything else you want to mention?
JJ: Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside were a big deal for a lot of the music we play, and they were really influential guys to me. They played a whole new style of blues.
NH: What’s your plan for Bandest of the Bands?
JJ: That’s a surprise. Our plan is we’re going to be the rowdiest band there, with the smallest number of members. Can we tell them the secret?
DH: No.
JJ: OK. We like to have fun though. And nothing makes us happier than seeing everybody just cut loose. We have fun when we see other people having fun.

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Mudpuppy