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Nearly a decade ago, Sadie Johnson made waves in the Indianapolis music community as the adolescent vocalist-guitarist in a band known as the Sad Sam Blues Jam.
Johnson, now 26, eventually left the scene to attend college in Ohio. But she’s back in town and building a career as a solo artist.
Blues remains an important part of her work, but Johnson’s sound is evolving.
“A lot of people know me as a blues guitarist and that’s what I grew up playing with my sister,” said Johnson, who founded the Sad Sam Blues Jam with older sibling Samantha Johnson. “I started realizing the plethora of music that’s out there that is very blues-influenced but not blues.”
On June 18, Johnson will play the WonderRoad festival at Garfield Park, opening a day of music that closes out with performances by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Marcus King and Michael Franti & Spearhead.
She describes what she’s putting together as a blend of funk, Americana, pop and jazz. On deck this summer is the release of her solo debut album, “Natural Distractions.”
Johnson recorded the project with an all-star cast of Indianapolis musicians, including keyboard player Kevin Anker, drummer Brian Yarde and saxophone players Rob Dixon and Jared Thompson.
Anker, Yarde and Dixon are scheduled to accompany Johnson at WonderRoad.
“People should expect the tunes from the album,” Johnson said. “These are the guys who put them down in the studio. The more we’ve been playing the songs, they’re taking on their own formation and energy. It’s a lot of funkiness and a good amount of saxophone. A little bit of guitar shredding, because you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
In 2014, Johnson was featured as a “Tomorrow’s Guitar Hero” in a Guitar Center Buyer’s Guide. A year later, she traveled to Europe as part of a “Girls with Guitars” tour presented by German label Ruf Records.
Today, she’s a guitar professor at two local colleges: Marian University and the University of Indianapolis.
Johnson also is giving private guitar lessons to a long-distance student who lives in Los Angeles: her grandmother.
“She’s 80,” Johnson said. “After 60 years of her not playing guitar, she’s getting back into it. It’s been the most amazing experience.”
Johnson said her Sad Sam sibling band mate, Samantha, is now “a full-time mom” living in Anderson.
The Johnson family moved from Virginia to Bloomington when Sadie was 8. The Bloomington High School North alum studied music therapy at Marietta College in Ohio.
Reconnecting with the Indianapolis music scene after graduating wasn’t an insurmountable challenge, Johnson said.
“I was in Ohio for six years and I didn’t play much in Indiana,” she said.”So it was a little tough creating a fan base again. But in terms of gigs, my sister and I made enough of an impact in the Indy music scene that I still had a little bit of clout.”
Johnson’s performance at the 2022 edition of Tonic Ball, where she paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix at Fountain Square venue Radio Radio, caught the attention of one of WonderRoad’s organizers, Dan Kemer.
After an exchange of Facebook messages, Johnson was hired to play the two-day festival that debuted in 2022. This year’s lineup includes fellow Indiana artists Stay Outside, Audiodacity, Dizgo and Ovrslept.
“I still have a fan base that’s fairly older in age,” Johnson said. “I’m also creating a new, younger group that’s in their 20s and 30s. I’m dialing into that group, which I never had before.”
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