Located in the eclectic downtown Atlanta neighborhood of Little Five Points, the Variety Playhouse welcomed back Grammy Award-winning musician Eric Johnson to town on Saturday for the second night of his new Texaphonic Tour. Erected in 1940, this converted World War II era movie theater is one of the more intimate and charming musical venues around town, with a posted capacity of 1,000. The main seating area has theater-style chairs, and while I have been to shows here where the front area of the stage was sold as open general admission space, Johnson’s concert on Saturday was set as reserved seating unlike his last trip through the city back in March 2023.
For a bit of trivia, “Texaphonic” was a term coined by Austin, Texas native Johnson to describe his distinctive musical sound and the emotional connection he has to his roots. The word is meant to represent the blending of diverse genres like rock, blues, jazz, fusion, and soul, and is a portmanteau of “Texas” and “phonic.” As expected, Johnson’s “Texaphonic” tone was on full display Saturday night.
Taking the stage shortly after 8:15 p.m. with just Roscoe Beck by his side on stand-up bass, Johnson unpretentiously took his seat with an acoustic guitar in hand and, like his prior jaunt through Atlanta, started the evening off with “Resolution,” followed by “Abelia.” Johnson’s 6-song acoustic set also once again included the Paul Simon cover of “April Come She Will,” “Tribute to Chet Akins,” and “Once Upon a Time in Texas,” but included on this night was the welcomed addition of “Waterwheel” pulled from his 2020 release, EJ Vol. II. The entire acoustic segment felt like a charming coffeehouse performance with respectful, library-level silence exercised by the audience.
With instruments swapped out and drummer Brannen Temple taking his place behind the kit, the electric portion of the evening kicked off with the track “Rejoice.” I’m sure that hardcore guitar fans of Johnson appreciated and admired his unmistakable tone as it echoed throughout the venue for the remainder of the evening, and while the 71-year-old is certainly an elder statesman now, his skillful playing remained nothing short of mesmerizing. It’s still hard to believe that I first saw him perform live back in September 1991 on the campus of Virginia Tech when I was a student.
While Saturday evening’s setlist included some repeats from 2023 — both “Impressions” (the John Coltrane cover) and “Righteous,” the immediately recognizable audience favorite from Johnson’s certified platinum release Ah Via Musicom (1990) — the band also performed some enjoyable deeper cuts, including “Steve’s Boogie” and “All About You.” Mixed into the night was also apparently a fair amount of material that Johnson hasn’t recorded yet. However, unlike on the Treasure Tour, Johnson treated his adoring fan base to “Desert Rose” as the penultimate tune of his main set. This was immediately preceded by an elongated solo that concluded with the familiar lead in chords and full delivery of his signature song, “Cliffs of Dover.”
Following yet another standing ovation, the band briefly exited the stage before returning to wrap up their night with an encore performance of Johnson’s 1986 Grammy-nominated “Best Rock Instrumental” track, “Zap,” from his debut studio album, Tones.
Johnson’s Texaphonic Tour 2025 continues on through Tuesday, October 28th, where it is currently scheduled to conclude in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the Tower Theatre.
Band
Eric Johnson – Guitar, vocals, piano
Roscoe Beck – Bass
Brannen Temple – Drums
Setlist:
1.) Resolution
2.) Abelia
3.) April Come She Will (Paul Simon cover)
4.) Waterwheel
5.) Tribute to Chet Atkins
6.) Once Upon a Time in Texas
7.) Rejoice
8.) Little Bit of Love
9.) You Got Things Going On
10.) Mr. Silverstone
11.) Bird That Whistles
12.) Trueheart Blues
13.) Light of Day – Hey Mama
14.) Stella by Starlight
15.) Impressions (John Coltrane cover)
16.) Steve’s Boogie
17.) Righteous
18.) Repose/Capriccio
19.) All About You
20.) Desert Rose
21.) Cliffs of Dover
Encore
22.) Zap
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Elliott is a music photographer covering shows in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The highlight of his photography career was back in the early ’90s, when he sold Neil Diamond the rights to his negatives from a show and then purchased a set of tires for his 1979 280ZX during college with the money.