Cortes Currents
Sixfoot Johnson - 24 years and going Strong
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The audio version of this story opened with Sixfoot Johnson playing 'Action is Expensive.' This is a band whose local roots are so deep they could be called a Cortes Island Institution. Dana Trueman, Garden Stein and Greg Osoba have been playing together for 24 years. Their final concert for this year will be the Gorge Harbour Marina from 7 to 9, on Friday August 21. Greg Osoba: “Our music is super diverse because all three of us are songwriters, and we all have our own styles. My stuff tends to be somewhat rocky and poppy. Dana’s is a bit more folk-rock, with a bit of country. Garden’s can sometimes be almost swampy, like Louisiana soul." “When people ask us to describe what we do, first of all, 90% of our music is original. We’re always introducing new material, but we like to describe ourselves as swinging, original, psychedelic, surf, alt-country rock. That covers all the different fields, because people who come to our shows understand that it’s all danceable — every single song. But it often contrasts from one song to another: the feeling, the tempo, the mood, the style. It really varies, which I feel very happy about.” Cortes Currents: What gives you a passion to play? Greg Osoba: "When I recited that poem at Love Fest, there was a line in there about ‘being present, sensing mood, need, the inexplicable.’ It’s very difficult to put into words what the visceral and emotional feelings are when you are playing music with other people and you sense that something very, very special is occurring." “It’s such a cliché to say ‘magical,’ but it truly is. With our music, since we leave quite a bit of room for improvised solos, the songs aren’t just rote. They’re never precisely the same way twice, and I just love that. It’s really a form of jazz when you get to improvise, intuit the moment, and see how that comes through you. “You hit the nail on the head for me. It is my passion. Playing music is certainly what drives me.” Cortes Currents: What brought you together? Greg Osoba: It wasn’t my idea. I got invited to join the band. I think it was our drummer Garden Stein’s idea, but there were other people involved early on. “The idea was to form a band to get ready for something he was staging at the Gorge Hall, many years ago, called the Battle of the Bands. We just started working on five or six tunes together for that.” Cortes Currents: How did you get the name Six Foot Johnson? Greg Osoba: “Our rhythm guitarist, harmonica player, songwriter, and singer, Dana Trueman, has a stage name he’s been using for decades: Dannfver Johnson. He’s over six feet tall. That’s how it was explained to me when I was away one winter, and the other three band members at the time said, ‘Oh, we’re changing our name from Mixed Greens to Sixfoot Johnson.’ They said it was sort of a play on Dana’s stage name. “Now it’s kind of funny, because at the Gorge Marina show, this past July, people asked, ‘How come you call yourselves Sixfoot Johnson?’ As we were just getting the show underway, Dana pointed to Garden, the drummer, and said, ‘See him? He’s got two feet.’ Then he pointed to me: ‘Greg, bass player, he’s got two feet. I’ve got two feet. That makes six feet — Sixfoot Johnson.’
