A major milestone

Mark Johnson plays banjo at his Dunnellon, Fla. home on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. Johnson is an award winning clawgrass banjo player and has produced several albums with Emory Lester. Johnson also performed with Lester in Nashville and taught Steve Martin to play banjo. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

Grateful is a word that Mark Johnson is accustomed to saying. The highly acclaimed yet humble banjo player, who resides in Dunnellon, has created an international name for himself through the years with his unique clawhammer style. But in sitting down with the legend, his first concern is that everyone is comfortable. Then, his warm smile translates into words and he talks about his life’s journey, the breaks he’s had and the people who have helped him and how they have turned into friends. And a recent, major health change has him smiling even more broadly—the gaining of sight in an eye that hasn’t had vision for most of his life.

Johnson is probably best known for his style of playing music that has been dubbed clawgrass. The musician uses the clawhammer style, where the hand is placed in a claw-like position while hammering the strings. But he adds his own bluegrass and definitive touch with a 5-string Deering banjo, playing traditional and original music. In fact, Johnson endorses the high-end banjo the company produces, which is named the Deering/Mark Johnson Clawgrass Model. It’s a true testament to his talent.

Johnson’s musical career started when he was a teenager in New York state and his mom helped him attain lessons to play the banjo, a musical instrument he’d taken an interest in. Years later, he would write a song for his mom with love and gratitude for her. Eventually Johnson took lessons from Jay Unger, a well-known fiddler who was also interested in clawhammer banjo styles. Although Johnson was unaware of how accomplished Unger was, his lessons turned into a change-making friendship and career foundation.

“I give him high praise,” Johnson said, “I just had no idea at the time.”

Learning to listen

In 1981, Johnson moved to Florida and took on leadership of the Levy County Emergency Management Center. In this capacity, he met a lot of locals, including Tony, Larry, Wyatt and Ron Rice, also known as top bluegrass musicians The Rice Brothers, who lived in Crystal River.  Larry and Tony Rice in particular took Johnson in and they all worked together as he honed his talent.

“I can’t say enough about them,” Johnson said. “Tony really took me under his wing. He played in such a way that I had to sense his playing, and honor it. He taught me how to listen.”

As Johnson began to gain even more notoriety and acclaim, he heard actor and comedian Steve Martin play the banjo. Knowing that Martin loved the instrument, Johnson sent him a sample of his own musical performance, hoping the A-list actor might enjoy it. Johnson wasn’t sure Martin would even receive it. But Martin did receive it and called.

“He said, ‘How do you play so beautifully?’” Johnson recalled, adding with a laugh, “Then he said, ‘Do you travel?’”

The next thing he knew, Johnson was visiting Martin, playing a party with the actor’s famous friends in attendance and giving him lessons. Spending time with that level of celebrities can be overwhelming, but Johnson focused on the music and enjoyed his visits.

“They’re just people, and that’s I all care about,” he said with a smile, noting he was welcomed in Martin’s circle.

Honors and awards

There have been other celebrity elbow-rubbing experiences, including a night on the “David Letterman Show” in 2012, when he was joined by acclaimed mandolin master Emory Lester, considered one of the finest American mandolinists and longtime friend of Johnson’s.

“It was like 51 degrees in the studio,” Johnson said with a laugh, noting that he and Lester were pretty chilled by their time on stage.

Some musicians Johnson has shared a stage with include Tony Rice, Bill Emerson, JD Crowe, Todd Phillips and the Steep Canyon Rangers, among many others. He has performed in several prestigious venues, including the Grand Old Opry. Johnson’s honors and awards are also impressive, including:

• His recording “Acoustic Rising” with Emory Lester was nominated for Instrumental Album of the Year in 2007
• His music was used in the 2012 Dodge Caravan television commercial
• He was the third recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for excellence in banjo and bluegrass music Award in 2012

And he has been featured in numerous publications, on social media pages and on Sirius XM radio.

But for all the attention, Johnson still loves just playing with friends. Colleagues from the music world are known to stop by and have a jam session. He also enjoys seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones on tour. He and Lester have toured together often through the years, not only in the US but also in Europe. Lester, who has had eight music projects of his own, noted that the European tour they completed in 2015 is a particularly fun memory. He added that one of his favorite projects that the two musicians have collaborated on is the “1863” CD, celebrating music from the Civil War.

“I love history, as does Mark, and ‘1863’ bridges the gap between history and music,” Lester said.

Although Johnson retired from his emergency operations job in 2022, he and Lester created their music and that part of their lives outside of working hours. They recognized early on that day jobs kept the finances going and made the touring and performances go a little easier than trying to make that lifestyle full-time. These days, Johnson keeps a full schedule teaching banjo and Lester continues to fit his talent for music in his after-work hours as an engineer. They both love teaching and at the same time they are both looking forward to their upcoming tour in Florida.

A “true miracle”

That tour will be the first since Johnson experienced what he calls a true miracle—the return of sight for central vision in his left eye. At only 3 years of age, Johnson lost his sight in that eye to a benign blood vessel tumor. Earlier this year, the blood vessels began to grow again, creating blood and pressure within the eye. Johnson’s surgeon not only was able to stop the growth, but also to reattach the retina.

This incredibly complicated procedure took two hours, and when the eye covering was removed the next day, Johnson remembered his reaction exactly. “I said, Oh, my god, I can see!’”

For the first time in 65 years, he had central peripheral vision, and even saw some colors and lighting with his left eye. The entire team working with him at UF Health Shands Hospital was celebrating the unlikely level of success of this intricate and delicate surgery.

The teaching, working on music for the Florida tour and always planning a new adventure appear to keep Johnson energized. He’s sentimental at times but also pragmatic. He explained that his entire life has been full of accidents. Good accidents. That he met Unger when he was seeking lessons, that he had guidance from the Rice brothers when he moved to Florida, that he has worked with some of the most talented professional musicians in the music world and many have become friends, that he and Lester have formed such a strong bond through the years. And, most recently, that he literally has a new vision with his medical miracle. He emphasizes the positive impact each of these has had in his life. It’s his gratefulness showing through.

“Mark’s very inspired and he inspires others,” said Lester. “He’s planning to live. I hear a lot of people comparing bucket lists, and I wonder, is anyone planning to live? And there’s Mark, and he’s planning to play more. I think he’d play even if his fingers fell off,” he said with a laugh.

Offering that his friend Mark is also transparent and easy to read, Lester continued: “He’s generous, loyal and has a list of friends longer than the highway. He’s blessed with talent and knows it. He plays from the heart.”

To learn more, go to clawgrassbanjo.com

Mark Johnson – Award Winning Clawgrass Banjo Player

12 photos

Mark Johnson, Emory Lester and Ken Taylor on tour

Saturday, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m. – Pioneer Florida Museum and Village in Dade City, pioneerfloridamuseum.org/events

Friday, Oct. 24, 7:15 p.m. – Bryson Family Home House Concert-Potluck in Gainesville; text 301-351-8087 for details

Music by Mark Johnson

Clawgrass Mark Johnson with the Rice Brothers and Friends

Mark Johnson and Clawgrass – Bridging the Gap

Mark Johnson and Emory Lester – Acoustic Campaign

Mark Johnson and Emory Lester – Acoustic Rising

Mark Johnson and Emory Lester – Acoustic Vision

Mark Johnson and Emory Lester – 1863

Mark Johnson and Emory Lester – Acoustic Milestones (20 years)

Mark Johnson teaches Clawgrass Banjo from Clawhammer to Bluegrass (DVD)