COUNTRY BOY EDDIE introduced Mike in September of 1982 to his Birmingham, Alabama Channel-6 TV viewers as "...sounding like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Jimmie Rodgers, all rolled into one!"
ART RUSH, Roy Rogers personal manager, wrote in part in a 4 May 1982 letter to Mike, "I listened to your cassette, songs and heard your yodeling. Although you do not perform your yodels exactly like Roy, you do handle a fast yodel. I am returning your cassette and lyrics of your song- I CAN YODEL SONGS LIKE THEM ALL. We are not permitted legally to keep any song material unless it is published because both Roy and Dale are composers. I want to wish you the best success possible with your songwriting. My advice to you, Micheal, "keep writin', singin' and yodelin' and one day we'll all be reading about you."
P.J. PRICE wrote in the 1995 September/October Issue of Country Note Connection magazine, "Spoke to Mike Johnson of Roughshod Records here recently. He's a singer/songwriter/graphic artist/truck driver, etc. ... Mike is known as "Black Yodeler No.1" and I promise you, he CAN yodel! He has a unique voice and writing style. He's very "traditional" and if any of you publishers would be interested in reviewing his material, write to Mike Johnson..."
BOB EVERHART wrote in his 1996 January/February Issue of Tradition magazine, "FINALLY, a new tape of good yodeling. This guy not only yodels, he double yodels and triple yodels! He's also a darn good songwriter and singer and guitarist."
ALLEN FOSTER wrote in his 1999 January Issue of Songwriters Monthly, "Johnson has a real talent for producing some incredible yodels. If you like the sound of good ol' country and yodeling, Mike Johnson is one of the best in the field. His album will be sure to please you."
BART PLANTENGA stated at his 7 May 2005 yodel-book lecture at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, "Mike Johnson, Virginia long-haul trucker and Country Music's No.1 Black Yodeler is a gifted Yodeler who easily switches from Hillbilly to Swiss-style yodeling... and became a bit of an Interstate legend when he began selling his recordings at truck stops along his long-distance routes..."
DAVE SICHAK, life-long traditional country music historian, researcher, and owner of the iconic Hillbilly Music dawt com web-site stated in a 4 February 2006 email to Mike, "I picked up your CD the other day on the way home... And after listening to the first tune I thought Elton Britt and Roy Rogers were in the car... I haven't heard a yodel song all the way through like that since I heard Elton Britt do it on a Skater's Yodel tune I have on 78 or on CD... Ain't no mistaking what's on that CD - 100% pure Country... thanks for sending it along."
PRESHIAS HARRIS wrote in part for her 8 December 2019 review in Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show, “…The album opens with the title track, “Let Me Die In A Honky Tonk,” a mid-tempo song in classic Western Swing style and Johnson showcases his yodeling skills here. You can hear him yodeling on other tracks, but he also includes some non-yodel songs in a traditional country style. “Spare Me a Quarter” is a cowboy waltz that has Johnson asking for quarter for the jukebox (still in the honky tonk, of course!) Other standout tracks include the ballad “There’s Something In Between Us” and “As Long As I Can Yodel” that clearly demonstrates why he is recognized as ‘Country Music’s No. 1 Black Yodeler.’…”
SUMMARY:
To be compared with Elton Britt is about as high a compliment that a Yodeler can receive, and Dave Sichak included Mike Johnson in the Artist Section of his iconic Hillbilly Music site which chronicles the country music careers of many well known and not so well known traditional country artists from country music’s early golden years. A few years later he would add McDonald Craig the Jimmie Rodgers yodeler from Linden, Tennessee.
And just how did Mike learn to yodel?
"Johnny Weissmuller," he quickly acknowledges. "I grew up during the 1950s and 1960s, a period when adventure movies and cliff-hangers ruled the Silver Screen. Westerns, Gladiators, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and my all-time favorite, Tarzan! I read all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels in grade school, and the summer camps and Boy Scout camping trips set the stage for many of us to imitate him. I wore out that Tarzan yodel, morning, noon, and night! At one point my mother threatened to ship me off to Africa, much to my youthful delight! So, I was actually yodeling before I even realized it and when I got into Country Music, I already had a major head-start with the yodeling. Without a doubt, it was my yodeling that paved my early music road. Yodeling got me noticed and truckin’ put me on the map.”
In fact, one of Mike's yodeling songs paints a humorous picture of that. From the Main Stage at the 2000 Avoca Old Time Country Music Festival in Avoca, Iowa, Bob Everhart, President of the National Traditional Country Music Association was handing out awards and he suddenly turned to Mike, who was videotaping the event, and asked him "How did you get into yodeling, Mike..." To which he replied, "Johnny Weissmuller." Bob scratched his head a puzzled moment and then exclaimed, "Johnny Weissmuller. Oh, he played Tarzan! Yeah, I guess that is a yodel..." On 25 July 2001 Mike wrote the amusing yodeling song, "Tarzan Did!" under the working title of "The Bob Everhart Song."
To be compared with Elton Britt is about as high a compliment that a Yodeler can receive, and Dave Sichak included Mike Johnson in the Artist Section of his iconic Hillbilly Music site which chronicles the country music careers of many well known and not so well known traditional country artists from country music’s early golden years. A few years later he would add McDonald Craig the Jimmie Rodgers yodeler from Linden, Tennessee.
And just how did Mike learn to yodel?
"Johnny Weissmuller," he quickly acknowledges. "I grew up during the 1950s and 1960s, a period when adventure movies and cliff-hangers ruled the Silver Screen. Westerns, Gladiators, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and my all-time favorite, Tarzan! I read all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels in grade school, and the summer camps and Boy Scout camping trips set the stage for many of us to imitate him. I wore out that Tarzan yodel, morning, noon, and night! At one point my mother threatened to ship me off to Africa, much to my youthful delight! So, I was actually yodeling before I even realized it and when I got into Country Music, I already had a major head-start with the yodeling. Without a doubt, it was my yodeling that paved my early music road. Yodeling got me noticed and truckin’ put me on the map.”
In fact, one of Mike's yodeling songs paints a humorous picture of that. From the Main Stage at the 2000 Avoca Old Time Country Music Festival in Avoca, Iowa, Bob Everhart, President of the National Traditional Country Music Association was handing out awards and he suddenly turned to Mike, who was videotaping the event, and asked him "How did you get into yodeling, Mike..." To which he replied, "Johnny Weissmuller." Bob scratched his head a puzzled moment and then exclaimed, "Johnny Weissmuller. Oh, he played Tarzan! Yeah, I guess that is a yodel..." On 25 July 2001 Mike wrote the amusing yodeling song, "Tarzan Did!" under the working title of "The Bob Everhart Song."
