Hard Knock Radio and Jennifer Johns

I was listening to Hard Knock Radio, yesterday, and thinking about all the music I’ve found listening to the show. Hard Knock comes on at 4 pm on KFCF 88.1 fm in Fresno (and KPFA in Berkeley). It’s worth checking out for the commentary and definitely for the music. They give airplay to local artists (usually Bay Area) which is how I started listening to Jennifer Johns.

Jennifer Johns is from East Oakland. From ages 14-19, she sang in the Oakland Youth Choir which gave her the opportunity to work with talents like Roberta Flack, Peabo Bryson, Melissa Manchester, Goapele, Latoya London, and Nancy Wilson. She continued performing and recording as part of an a cappella group called Local Motion. In 2004, she released the full-length Heavy Electromagnetic Soularpoetic Junglehop. The album is a mix of styles and influences –Soul, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronica, and World — all of which form a vibe that works.

It’s been a couple of years since I heard her on the radio, and in that time, it’s become harder to find her music. You can still hear her debut album on Rhapsody, but that’s it unless you want to pay 30 bucks for the discontinued CD on Amazon.

The good news is, she has a newish single out, “Painting on Wax.” From reading her MySpace page, it looks like a full album will come out soon. For now, I’ve made a Tune Bitez Neo Soul Playlist with lots of Jennifer Johns to hear. Yeah, I know, it’s hard to put a label on her music, but I had to call the playlist something, right? I hope you enjoy it!

Tags: 88.1, Berkeley, fresno, Funk, Hard Knock Radio, Jennifer Johns, KFCF, KPFA, music, Neo Soul, Nu Soul, playlist, R&B

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.