Coyle concert leader passing the baton

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Norm Johnson was steeped in hippie culture. He graduated in 1966 from a high school just north of San Francisco and attended the University of California, Davis.

At the center was folk music, which led to a lifelong passion for Johnson, 71, founder of Concerts in the Woods in Coyle.

“I was right there in the center of the hippie movement because not only was there the Haight-Ashbury District in San Francisco, but also, in the town where I lived outside of Santa Rosa, they had the Morningstar Commune,” he said, adding he never wore tie dye or let his hair grow out.

“No, I couldn’t do that,” he said as he chuckled. “My parents were so against it, I didn’t dare. I definitely wanted to be. I was a hippie wannabe. I think that movement is still reflected in the music I like. The independence of folk music.”

In high school, Johnson started out listening to Bob Dylan.

“In college, I never appreciated it, but we had bands coming in to UC Davis all the time,” he said. “Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick. The Doors. Now I look back and think, ‘Boy, I was sure lucky to be there then.’”

In midst of the Vietnam War era, Johnson avoided the draft with a college deferment but worked for the Navy after college as a chemist in the Bremerton shipyard, which is how he ended up in Washington.

“I was kind of worrying about the draft all the time,” he said.

Even though he did not go into the music industry, Johnson never lost his passion for hearing musicians perform live.

Johnson has for two decades helmed various music festivals and concert series, including the Bainbridge Bluegrass Festival and a series in Seattle.

This will be Johnson’s last year at the helm of the Coyle series, as he intends to hang up his hat after a decade as the event organizer.

“We started in 2009,” he said. “In total (my wife Sol and I) have been hosting concerts for about 20 years because we started off doing house concerts in the backyard of our home in the summertime. It has been a lot of weekends, a lot of time that we didn’t get to go anywhere. I’d like to get some free time, and so we are trying to find other people to take it on. I could do something traveling.”

Sol said she is looking forward to more time with her husband.

“The concert series has been a sacrifice for the family, but it has been good for the community, and we have gotten to hear some wonderful musicians,” she said. “Some of them came from far-away places like Spain, England and Australia. I have met a lot of new people through the music that I never would have met otherwise.”

Johnson said he has agreed to stay on as the event organizer in Coyle through next December.

“Since I already had a schedule on the calendar, I’ve agreed to see it through,” he said. “It’s not that I won’t ever do a concert again. It is in my blood. I certainly am going to go to concerts as opposed to hosting them.”

Johnson said he currently is seeking a replacement or a team of replacements to take up the mantle of organizing the series in 2020 and beyond.

“We don’t have any firm commitments, but we have at least two people that are very interested, and we are looking at what that might look like in the future after 2019,” he said.

Hundreds of artists

During the past nine years, Johnson estimates there have been about 200 artists who have performed as part of the ongoing series, which takes place at the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center, 923 Hazel Point Road in Coyle. Admission to the all-ages shows is by donation.

Johnson said he gives preference to artists who perform original music.

“I don’t do cover bands normally,” he said. “I am trying to promote people that have created their own music. I met some of those people, and I saw there was a real lack of support for them, and I thought they were doing a really good job. They are our future. We already know the standards. They are wonderful, and I enjoy hearing them, but the future depends on people writing new music.”

Such talent needs to be appreciated, Johnson said.

“These people are really talented, and nobody is noticing them, and I wanted to be involved in promoting original music,” he said.

When a relatively unknown artist later finds success after cutting their teeth at the Concerts in the Woods series, Johnson is tickled pink.

“It is particularly when I find a young artist who has never played in public before, and giving them an opportunity to play in public,” he said. “And then, maybe years later, I see them with their own website and their own schedule, and they are out there making CDs. A couple of them have moved on to major hubs like Nashville or New York City and are playing top-notch clubs. I keep looking at that and saying, ‘they played for me first.’”

Bringing culture to Coyle

Johnson said bringing culture to Coyle has been a major factor in his continued passion for the series.

“There aren’t a whole lot of activities here,” he said. “For culture, this is kind of it. I think this series has definitely brought some opportunities that we didn’t have here before, and people enjoy that. There is a lot of support for it here, and now that the word is getting out that I want some time of my own, they have been talking to me about what they can do. I am glad to hear that.”

Johnson noted his position is strictly voluntary, and he doesn’t make a dime for all his work.

“It has always been a labor of love,” he said. “I spend a little time every day answering emails, making posters and maintaining the website, sending out press releases.”

While still a year out, Johnson suspects he will miss the audience and the musicians.

“The musicians themselves, I enjoy hearing their stories,” he said. “I often host them in our guest cabin, and I often provide them a meal so we can sit together and talk to them about their tours and where they have been and their development as musicians.”

Johnson invites the public to the next concert in the series, featuring Ranger and the Re-Arrangers, the Northwest’s premier gypsy-jazz band. The performance begins at 3 p.m. Jan. 13.

“Here it is all about the music,” he said. “There is no other reason to be here. Anybody who comes has specifically come to hear a concert and yet it is informal. It is quiet, people pay attention to the music and the musicians feel it. That is why I have been able to get such good talent out here, which seems strange. You expect these bands not to come to a place like Coyle. It is so remote. But they like the fact that I have an audience that listens. They don’t often get that.”

For more information, call Johnson at 360-765-3449 or visit www.coyleconcerts.com.