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Country music, some people say, is instantly recognizable upon the entrance of pedal steel guitar. Then again, the genre has flirted with sitars, synths, even rap, so perhaps a method of identification not so related to musical instruments might be better. Along these lines, a good question to ask would be: Does the album have a cover by
Bill Johnson? This art director and graphic designer is one of the kings of country & western album covers. He seems to have fenced in large aspects of the ranch devoted to greatest-hits collections, making it exclusively his turf to graze. The length of his popularity as a cover designer is impressive, even in a genre where fans and performers alike are known for their long-range loyalty.
Johnson who, needless to say, gets confused with hundreds of others who share his name, became identified with both the outlaw country and urban cowboy movements of the early '80s. His designs stressed the hyper-real, bringing out colors and those special details of wardrobe, make-up and hair-styling with a technique that compares favorably with Technicolor Western movies of the '50s and '60s. Clearly, his finished product has quite an edge over what the average designer down the street could come up with -- no doubt the reason the
Dixie Chicks chose him for their 1999 hit, Fly.
Johnson has won several Grammy awards for his art direction. ~ Eugene Chadbourne