Phil & Gaye Johnson have lived the country music tradition incorporating into their sound almost all aspects of American acoustic music.
Gaye, a native of Green Creek in the foothills of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, grew up singing and playing music with her family and friends. Phil, on the other side of the country, discovered the roots of Country Music as a youth in Southern California. Phil & Gaye came together by accident backstage at play at Santa Monica College during the Fall of 1969.
In 1972 the pair moved back East, got married, and settled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where they initiated a live two hour radio program broadcast weekly over WMRA-FM and, completed a 13 episode Bluegrass program for Virginia Public Television entitled Phil's Ole' Time Pickin' Junction. Later re-broadcast in several Southeastern states, it spawned a sequel Phil & Gaye's Song Swap Shop in 1977.
In 1980 Phil & Gaye created and produced a weekly live radio program entitled Cornbread & Sweetmilk Time for commercial Country Music stations In North and South Carolina and released their first album Cornbread & Sweetmilk. (CRC/Park Street 43632) the program continued until 1983. By that time they had made their first of four appearances on The Nashville Network's Fire on the Mountain television series, as well as numerous appearances on public radio's A Prairie Home Companion.
Their experience in radio combined with their eclectic style, incorporating everything from traditional Country Music to Western Swing, Bluegrass, and Country-Rock, performed by Gaye on lead vocals and guitar, and Phil on guitar, mandolin, resonator guitar and harmonica made them the perfect choice to host the premier Bluegrass/Country Music radio program The Liberty Flyer. Broadcast in 1984 and 1985 throughout the United States and around the world via The Armed Forces Radio Network, The Liberty Flyer gave Phil & Gaye a chance to showcase Gaye's extraordinary mountain alto and Phil's classic songwriting.
Since then, Phil & Gaye have appeared on a number of television and radio programs and have released five recordings on the ASTER label. They continue to travel across the South giving over 100 concerts per year. In addition Phil has recorded a series of SongTelling ™ titles as well as several guitar instructional manuals and videos. They are currently the hosts of "The KingPup Radio Show - Small Time Opry" America's premier "roots music" program available on 50 radio stations world wide and on the World Wide Web at: http://www.radioyur.com.