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ROSS JOHNSON
Make It Stop! The Most Of Ross Johnson
(Goner)

(NO DEPRESSION.NET) -- Ross Johnson's 1993 single, "It Never Happened" b/w "Nudist Camp", addresses Memphis music history and the scarring effect an early encounter with sexually precocious twins can have on a self-declared "southern sissy" with woman problems. A Little Rock native who moved to Memphis in 1965, Johnson has been a drummer (most notably with Tav Falco's Panther Burns), rock critic, librarian, and, as this disc demonstrates, first-class humorist.

Veering from spoken word to mutant rockabilly, the compilation presents a raconteur deranged by pop culture -- Brother Dave Gardner crawling down Beale Street with a head full of booze and trouble, maybe. On "It Never Happened", he declares, "None of that shit ever happened here in Memphis," while "Nudist Camp" immortalizes "sin twisters" Donna and Dora and their 12-year-old "pimp kinda kid" brother Richard, who allow the pre-pubescent Johnson a peek at a future terrifying to contemplate.

-- EDD HURT
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Edd Hurt