New Dark Age May 2019

Johnny Marr at the Wellmont

May 1, 2019

Prolific singer-songwriter Johnny Marr is was born John Maher to Irish Catholic parents and raised in Manchester England where he began his musical career at age 13. The area surrounding Manchester is dotted with numerous American and British Army and Air Force bases that were established during and active after the Second World War. The exposure to American blues, rock and country & western music had an intense influence on the young people growing up in that vicinity, and the number of world-renowned bands coming from the area is legion. Opening with the unbelievably rousing anthem, “Tracers” from his third solo album, the “Call the Comet” (2018) Marr set the stage for an emotionally intense and enthusiastic show. He followed with the Smiths’ “Big Mouth Strikes Again” with characteristic 80s sound from the Smiths’ album “The Queen Is Dead.” Next came the brand new composition “Armatopia” then he returned to “Call the Comet” for “Day In and Day Out,” which Marr described as a dealing with the issue of obsession. Several more tracks from that new album were interspersed with Smiths songs, most especially the revered “How Soon Is Now?”

So it went, alternating between more from “Call the Comet” and iconic Smiths songs, right through the encores which were represented by two from each category, concluding with the powerful “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet.”

Besides Marr’s famous work with Morrisey and the Smiths, he has played and collaborated with such well-known bands as The Pretenders, the Crib, Modest Mouse and the supergroup, 7 Worlds Collide. Marr’s jangly and unique guitar style has had incalculable influence in the alternative music scene.