Early in 2021, singer-songwriter Jade (Celeste) Brodie was on her way to a safety certification as a Union Pacific railroad conductor, when she blew past the highway exit and kept on driving. This new job would require Brodie to live mostly out of her truck, sell and board her animals. She was on her way to certify to use the oxygen masks railroad crews sometimes need going through the giant tunnel under Donner Pass (“the big hole”). After being furloughed from the railroad earlier that year, Brodie had been working on a ranch outside of Winnemucca, NV; still, when the call came, she assumed she had to return to the railroad, up until the moment she was supposed to take that freeway exit. Brodie called her boss and told him she wouldn’t be coming back.

On the back of singer/songwriter John Moreland’s shaved-bald head is inked the words “Hell Bound,” in a sailor tattoo-style ribbon. Above it, another tattoo depicts Jesus, complete with a crown of barbed wire ringing Moreland’s forehead. Though incongruous, together the two images convey the tension Moreland still feels after falling out of his Christian upbringing, as well as the on-going, soul-deep tumult that makes his music resonate deeply with so many audiences.

For years, Johnson was one of the best-kept secrets in the local Seattle Americana music scene, enjoying a cult following elsewhere, but no broad national recognition. He worked at Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood staple Al’s Tavern, and played out occasionally. But after “Faraway Skies,” his first single (and still most popular song), that started change: