Ronnie Johnson’s CV reads like a music industry roll call of the great and the good. Since 2009 he
has been taking his custom Mariner® AX-6H guitar with him wherever he goes. Mariner Guitars are delighted
to be working with Ronnie as an endorser and as one of our product development team.
Best known
perhaps for the decade he spent playing with Van Morrison and his musical direction of that band, Ronnie’s talents transcend
electric and acoustic playing disciplines. His skills as a composer have enhanced the performances and recordings of many
of the industry’s leading artistes. Apart from his own albums, solo and with First Light, Ronnie has racked up three
with Peter Green, Sting’s Living Sea movie soundtrack, and others with such musical aristocracy as Georgie Fame, Joe
Cocker, Tom Jones, Michael Bolton and Leo Sayer. "Having such an eclectic and accomplished musician feeding ideas into
the design and development process is terrifically stimulating for us here at Mariner,” commented Ken Achard, the company’s
founder. “Ronnie is such a nice bloke as well. There’s no prima donna BS with Ronnie and that is very refreshing.”
In live performance, Ronnie has pulled licks for the best of them. He is modest about his gigs with Bob Dylan, but his
resume illustrates his own musical diversity. As a formidable blues technician he has played with John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon
and Zoot Money, but he has crossed over easily into jazz. folk and pop, backing John Hendricks, Sting, Ritchie Havens, Georgie
Fame, Marianne Faithful, Cassandra Wilson to name but a few. He has toured extensively with Van Morrison and Leo Sayer and
performed with bands such as Incognito and The Blessing.
If you have enjoyed the soaring guitar lines behind BBC2’s
iconic Top Gear programme, Channel 4’s Badass TV, or TV adverts from the likes of Air New Zealand and Range Rover, chances
are you’ve been listening to Ronnie Johnson. On the big screen he is the composer behind the animated films from the
Scragg and Bones Annix Studios.