biographical info
Like a dishevelled railroad orphan with a six-shooter and a matching set from Tiffany's, Johnnie Ninety-Nine and her bindle of fables raft their way down both the frigid North Saskatchewan and the mighty
Mississippi on a rough-hewn wooden door stolen straight off the hinges of the village church.
Prairie girl Jobi "Johnnie" Mihajlovich has been playing music since she was big enough to crawl onto the piano bench in her parents' Albertan mobile home. By age 6, she was competing with music students more than twice her age at the provincial level in composition. Since then, she has eagerly attempted every aspect of the Muse she had an opportunity to explore, and has finally come full circle to an individual style heavily influenced by the Howlin' Wolf, Hank Williams, and Hendrix she was raised on.
Described by one slack-jawed onlooker as a union between Marc Bolan and Janis Joplin, Johnnie’s powerful voice and unique frailing slide style on the resonator banjo electrifies every room she plays.
Ceaselessly inspired, she can also be found weaving keyed and choral tapestries with her brethren in emerging cosmic folk-rock group, Buffaloswans, or shooting bottle caps and gittin’ ‘er done with Shiloh Lindsey and her country blues outfit.
Hard-working Johnnie treats recording like harvest time, and has had a bumper crop of albums over the last two years. With a sheepish nod to Alan Lomax, she wrangled the multitude of willing musicians at hand, and archived several almost photographic stills, capturing brief moments in music, land, and time.
Late 2009 saw the deliciously rare convergence of The Buckin' Ladybugs and their EP Whiskey Pushin'. Recorded at The Hive Creative Labs, this Vancouver super string-band features a raucous crew of members from Red Cedar, British Columbians, The Greff Band, and Viper Central.
Early 2010 gave rise to Southern-inspired and Olympics-escaping road record Good Enough for Canada! with the Buskin' & Robbin' Band. Then her debut full length record No Home like Nowhere, originally recorded in 2008, was released to excellent reviews. As though this was not enough, a return to fabled Nashville studio Welcome to 1979 incited the creation of live-off-the-floor True Grit, Cigarettes & Gasoline with The Good Time Family Band , set to be released later this year on vinyl.
By January 2011, worn smooth by a year on the road and ready to plug in and crank up, Johnnie was back in the studio with long-time producer pal Luke de Villiers of hotshot reggae menagerie, Giraffe Aftermath. Tentatively titled, A Whole Box of Shells is a rustic twang of two players and one microphone that builds to the multilayered overdriven swamp sludge of wreckless modernity. This sophomore album, set for spring release, draws from Johnnie’s deep well of heritage and highways, farmers to outlaws, Roseburg to Bajina Basta. Every song is a loving gesture of respect to all the things that came before it. It tastes of depression dustbowl thirst, quenched with back-forty moonshine, and taken on down to the dancehall.
In some circles, “johnny/ie" is a term of endearment. Johnny 99 is a rock solid Bruce Springsteen song. Probably thanks to some poor soul inspired by the first verse, a johnny ninety-nine is also a ruthlessly
efficient beverage essentially using wine as a bed for a shot of gin. Johnnie Ninety-Nine takes a similar approach to her instruments, believing that high-proof music should be combined, not diluted.
Johnnie can be booked solo, or with a band.