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Will Johnson of Centro-Matic
That Will Johnson is a powerful and prolific songwriter is not up for debate. Over the past eight years, Will has proven himself a veritable magnet for critical and peer affection; the words "cult following" tend to hover near any description of either his folk-pop juggernaut, Centro-Matic, or its gray-skied cousin, South San Gabriel. Johnson is the author of a staggering 10 full-length albums between those two bands and his solo project (Murder of Tides, his solo debut, was released in 2002), and each is a unique statement, holding its own within a catalogue easily placed alongside those of Uncle Tupelo or the Drive By-Truckers, Neil Young or the Replacements.
Johnson's solo songs are simply stunning. Like Murder of Tides, Vultures Await carries the darkness absent in Johnson's other projects, but it is not just somber - an underlying hopefulness flows through these songs. Stark vocal melodies cut a swath to Appalachia, ghosts of roadhouse barmen backing up against Flannery O'Connor; these are interwoven throughout piano ballads, acoustic elegies and, occasionally, fully fleshed-out pop songs that carry the seamless, rough emotion of a Southern literary genius.
  
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