Orville Johnson

Orville is a nationally acclaimed lap-style dobro player and teacher. He also teaches fingerpicking, flatpicking, and bottleneck slide styles on acoustic guitar, in addition to mandolin and Weissenborn. A mainstay in PNW roots music, he is also available for consultations on recording, arranging, singing, and music theory.

Orville is known as a patient and insightful teacher of music. My teaching style is based on helping students accomplish their goals, he says. I do this by developing an approach that fits their own ways of learning, adding technique and repertoire, and, ultimately, bringing them to a point at which they can teach themselves. Knowledge is power!

Orville was born and raised in the southern Illinois heartland. He is a singer, instrumentalist, record producer, songwriter, session player, teacher, and, above all, an instinctive and sensitive musician. As his entry in the Encyclopedia of Northwest Music (Sasquatch Press 1999) states, Orville has become a vital figure on the NW music scene in the 30-some years hes lived here, appearing on over 400 CDs, movie and TV soundtracks, and hosting a roots music radio show.

Orville has taught at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, International Guitar Seminar, Port Townsend Blues Week, Euro-Blues Workshop, and many others.