Local arts promoter Jay Johnson looks ahead to 2016 Cephas Blues Fest

                                                                                                                                                              Music producer Jay Johnson, in his Bowling Green recording studio,

holds two 2015 awards from the Clean Music Movement. (CP photo by Ken Snow)

Jay Johnson has a New Year’s Resolution for Caroline County. He hopes to make the second annual John Cephas Blues Fest in Bowling Green bigger and better than the first, and is already lining up entertainment for the event, set for June 11, 2016, which will feature a new Piedmont Blues Contest.

Johnson was also instrumental in attracting a national event to the Caroline Community Center auditorium this fall. The Clean Music Movement Awards ceremony drew participants from 19 states and was covered in the regional press. Johnson himself received two of the awards, as Producer of the Year and for his original score for a Broadway-style musical, “I Am Not Afraid,” an anti-bullying play written by children’s book author Ayana Baugh.

As a member of the Caroline County Arts Commission, he helped the town of Bowling Green obtain the historical landmark sign honoring legendary bluesman and National Heritage Fellow John Cephas, and organized the tribute and dedication in 2014. He has also been a driving force behind the summer series of Music on the Green for the past three years, recruiting the entertainers, running the sound and acting as emcee.

At his studio on Main Street Bowling Green, he records a wide range of artists, from jazz to Christian rap and Southern gospel, and also performs with his own band, Jay Johnson and Friends.

• CP Editor Constance Snow