Where There's a Will Johnson, There's a Song for Obama Worth Listening To

Where There’s a Will Johnson, There’s a Song for Obama Worth Listening To

I know, I know -- we have a music blog. But on this frigid morning, I wanted to direct your attention to this download, warm and well-meaning, courtesy National Public Radio, songwriter Christian Kiefer and a singer named Will Johnson. It's a song called "Someone to Wake," the final installment...

Keep Dallas Observer Free

We’re $1,800 away from our spring campaign goal!
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures Dallas Observer can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.

Progress to goal

$10,000

I know, I know — we have a music blog. But on this frigid morning, I wanted to direct your attention to this download, warm and well-meaning, courtesy National Public Radio, songwriter Christian Kiefer and a singer named Will Johnson. It’s a song called “Someone to Wake,” the final installment in a presidential song cycle that officially ended with George W. Bush on the three-disc collection Of Great and Mortal Men. NPR debuted the song, a last-minute addendum to the collection, yesterday; it will be performed, along with the other 43 songs, tomorrow in a Washington, D.C., synagogue.

In September 1995, Johnson, then the drummer in Funland, came up to the Observer to give me a cassette filled with scattershooting bedroom demos, one of which (“Misunderstanding Surplus in the Getaway Car”) made the second Dallas Observer Scene, Heard compilation. I’m looking at the tape now — its label handwritten on the back of a cut-out Rick’s Place flier, Side A of the Maxell tape marked as “Centrum. Addict.” Seems like a million years ago. That voice now, good God.