“It’s the last UT home game, and you guys are here,” Josh Johnson of Elenowen said. “It’s almost blasphemy.”
Along with his wife Nicole Johnson, the two romanticized a captive audience at their advanced CD release tour Saturday night at the Concourse at The International. The new album “For the Taking” is a reflection on their whole new life. Now accompanied by a baby boy, the two are morphing their career and their family into one.
Not defined by any particular sound, the singer-songwriter couple used their diversity to take Saturday night’s audience on a truly intimate experience through their love and the struggles they have overcome.
It was a romantic journey. The crowd sat on the floor and on couches, leaning into every word the two sang.
“It feels like there should be a campfire,” Josh Johnson said.
Elenowen did what they do best: they took a group of strangers through the highs and the lows of their life, giving light to every bittersweet moment.
Nicole and Josh Johnson locked eyes during “Desert Days,” sending a hush over the audience. Josh Johnson explained they once lived in Nicole Johnson’s parent’s basement for five years.
“Someday we’re gonna find the things that we’ve been looking for,” the couple sang.
And they did. They mentioned several times throughout their show how incandescently happy they are now that they have their child, Nolan. Happy to be parents, their music takes on a new meaning. Now they are mother and father, along with husband and wife and musicians. Their performance was more of a reflection than an expression of struggle. Josh and Nicole Johnson are now in love with something bigger than themselves, and they use their newfound happiness to express their deepest emotions through their music.
“(Nolan) is the love of our lives,” Nicole Johnson said.
At one point, the show even turned sexy. Reflecting the true roller coaster of a marriage, the two sang a sultry cover of The Cure’s “Love Song.” Expressing their love for covering songs, Josh and Nicole Johnson showed the audience the chemistry that flows between them.
Their relationship is beautiful, in every sense of the imagination, romance that is not all gushy and happy. In fact, sometimes the struggles seem to be all that comes into focus. Elenowen’s music is a direct reflection of that. Josh and Nicole Johnson are two best friends as well as a husband and wife who want nothing but to be real with their audience. Their struggles and triumphs have defined them as not only musicians, but as humans. They never hold back their past experiences; instead they share them with open arms.
The new album is a joyful accomplishment for Elenowen. It’s been a long time coming, but Josh and Nicole Johnson are finally through the troubles. They locked eyes once again while singing “For the Taking,” using the lyrics to express that life is for the taking, so they need to take it together.
Happy to be happy, Nicole Johnson left the audience with a little piece of her bliss.
“It’s really been good,” she said, “this little tour we’ve been on.”
