User:Johnvcarson/Sandbox

At about the age of 14 he was playing lead guitar regularly with local bands in Southern California while still taking those violin lessons. Local bands used him regularly for very grown-up gigs, one group called "The Golden Hearts" had regular gigs at many clubs and Southern Cal Air Force bases. Johnny was working as lead guitarist at these shows.

In 1975 he made his first trip to Europe with a rock group out of California playing Rock/Jazz Fusion. Johnny created & performed with [CLOVIS] a Fusion power trio out of Helsinki Finland. He spent many years in Scandinavia performing and is a part of Finnish musical history, playing with many of the famous artist of Finland. Such as Pave Maijanen, Leif Kiviharju and jammin with Jukka Tolonen and Coste Apetrea.

While living in Oakland, Ca. for a couple of years he worked with a group called "Bad Baby" which included, Dave Brown (ex-Carlos Santana bassist) Patrice "Chocolate" Banks ( ex Graham Central Station member ).

In Chicago Johnny "Guitar" Carson played rhythm guitar on the South Side for the blues guitar icon "Buddy Guy" at Buddys old club named CheckerBoard Lounge ( under the Loop) and was fortunate enough to jam with the great John Lee Hooker.

Johnny Guitar Carson worked for a few years as musical director for Maverick Flats in Inglewood California, helping the owner John Daniels prepare new talent for recording and performing on European tours. At Maverick Flats he worked with such artist as LakeSide, Howard Hewitt, Robert & Ralph Deblanc and many others.

He worked as Lead Guitarist, song writer & musical director for Mitch McDowell's General Caine (Tabu Records) on the album entitled 'Dangerous', and though many of the demo arrangement chores were handled by Johnny "Guitar" Carson ( known at that time as"GRANDMAN") & Leon 'Ndugu' Chancler. This album had songs written by " Genaral Caine", Johnny "Guitar" Carson, Hershall "Happiness"s Kennedy, among others.