Johnny-on-the-note

Girouard's made music in our back yard for years

by Mark Edmonds

If you were to search for Johnny Girouard's name, say, within the pages of Rolling Stone or on the World Wide Web, it's doubtful you'll find any mention of him. Despite more than 30 years as a bandleader both in and around Leominster and in New York City, Girouard is hardly a household word anywhere than, well, in his own house.

Such are the breaks when you're a guy who never wanted to sell his soul to make it in the commercial-music world. We here in the music- writing biz are deluged with product from those people, many of whom often sound so much like one another or the current trend du jour that you wonder whether they're all related. Their discs and media kits pile up under our desks, while whiny solicitations from their publicists choke our voice mails. At times, it's enough to forgo listening to music all together.

And then you discover someone like Girouard, who's been making smart music in our back yard for years. You can sample his music live this coming weekend, when he sets up for a rare two niter with a six piece at Slattery's, in Fitchburg. While you're there, ask him for a copy of This Modern World (Parnar) -- a disc that made me just about as excited as I would have been had I found a truckload of gold bullion buried beneath the rosebushes.

Why? A guy like Girouard, who apparently doesn't give a shit about selling records, seems like an island. Rockabilly, rock and roll, blues, folk, and, yes, hell, even country come together in ways that are nothing short of miraculous.

Not in recent memory have I heard anything as diverse as the array of songs that appears on World, where Girouard and his guitars somehow manage to nimbly make their way through a few covers -- including Robert Johnson's "Last Fair Deal," Woody Guthrie's "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos," and early-rock king Little Richard's signatory "Wrap It Up" -- and a handful of originals that betray his allegiance to no particular genre.

"I guess, if I'm going to cover something, I'll pick anything that's got a strong melodic sense to it, whether it's folk, country, whatever," he says. "Other musicians inspire me, and I just draw upon that. I'll just get a seed of a song, take it home, and work on it, change it, and add to it. And that's it."

So where has Girouard been all these years, and why are we only finding out about him now? "I've been around," he admits with a shrug. "Since I got out of high school in '68, I've always, somehow, made my living playing music. But I guess you could say the biggest reason people don't know me better around here is because I live in New York, too, and I play there a lot."

He admits a fondness for folk sounds but feels the genre is limiting. "I love folk music," he explains. "I get up every morning and put someone on whether it's Tom Rush or whoever. But I always seem to find myself wandering. I go back to that old rock stuff -- Elvis, Little Richard, you know. And then I'll listen to any of the younger songwriters out there. I guess you can kind of see that on my disc. When I started working on it, I didn't know what I was going to do. So, I did everything I liked."

The title cut tips toward something in the light acousti-pop vein that Rush works in, while the jangly, toned-down rock of "Rebel Girl" recalls an early-Byrds number or anything off the mellow rack in rock's alt section, depending on your point of reference.

The son of a Cajun tannery worker, Girouard grew up in Leominster to the sound of his daddy and uncles sawing away on fiddles and guitars on weekends ("They played Cajun, ragtime, country, a lot of different things.").

From there, of course, you can probably fill in the rest. He went through the typical rock-discovery-in-high-school thing, keying into the Beatles, Dylan, and the soul and R&B coming out of Motown and Memphis in the '60s, then there was a succession of bands and gigs throughout the North County until his marriage and his wife's job offer in the Big Apple came up. Forced to chose between living in his hometown and the city, he didn't. He shuttles back and forth often.

He says his move to New York was eye-opening in a number of ways. Most important, it made him realize how many people try to make a career in the music business and fail. "For me, it's more a creative thing, and for fun. As I got older, got married, and a couple kids came along, I felt less and less like I wanted to compete with everyone to be heard. "

These days, though, he contents himself with writing and recording at home and working on his sideline (he does some pretty cool photographic art).

"My wife is really tough, and she insists that I work on my music, or the art thing, or something creative everyday," he explains with a laugh, adding, "If I don't, she gets, well, pissed. Everyday, I've gotta come up with something. Now, I know that sounds harsh, but it really isn't. Let's just say there's a lot of love behind that."

Johnny Girouard appears at 9 p.m on February 14 and 15 at Slattery's, in Fitchburg. Call (978) 342-8880.