Magnolia Electric Co, Rises From The Ashes Like a Phoenix In The Wind

Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co. Live at Baby’s All Right 2026-04-12

The boulevard of artistic geniuses is littered with the roadside graves of countless tormented souls. Unfortunately one of those markers has Jason Molina’s name on it. There are some who manage to overcome their demons and see the intersection at the end of the road separating life and death but alas Jason was not one of those lucky ones as he fell victim to years of alcohol abuse. At the all too young age of 39 Jason’s body just gave out back in March of 2013 and for those who knew him personally as well as those of us who only knew him through his music were robbed of a tremendous talent, not to mention an amazing person.

Jason of course was the heart and soul of both Songs: Ohia as well as Magnolia Electric Co. and as is most often the case it proves virtually impossible to fill the vacancy left by such an individual when they are no longer here. Joe Strummer comes to mind when in 1991 he had the task to fill in for Shane MacGowan of the Pogues. Another that could fit this bill would be John Mayer and his role with the Dead & Co., not replacing but more filling the role once occupied by Jerry Garcia. But for the most part the list of artists who are able to fill the shoes of iconic front men in any musical group is far and in between, which is one reason why this run of shows this past month by Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co. by and large were so special. Will Johnson, the renaissance man of the 21st century is best known as singer and guitarist for Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel, as well as other side projects like The Monsters of Folk, New Multitudes and The Undertow Orchestra. His talents however, run well beyond strictly his being a musician. He is a masterful painter, specializing in folk style paintings largely centered around baseball, one of his true loves and passions. He is also a writer, having released his first novel, If Or When I Call, back in 2021. Will, of course, was also a close friend of and collaborator with Jason Molina. Their album together, Molina And Johnson, cuts right to the bone with its heartfelt emotions and beautiful word craft. As such, when the remaining members of Magnolia Electric Co. approached Will about resurrecting MECO as Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co., Will jumped at the opportunity assuming he could work it out schedule wise with his other current gig as a touring member of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit.

The new project released a three song EP last September comprised of re-recordings of a pair of tunes from the Molina And Johnson LP (“Wooden Heart” and “Twenty Cycles to the Ground”) as well as the first ever studio recording of the classic MECO tune, “Big Beast” which was previously only ever released as a live track on the fantastic live album Trials and Errors. As far as live appearances go, the band has had to be rather selective about tour dates due to all of the moving parts within the band. They played a handful of gigs in TX in September 2025 to celebrate the release of the EP and then a pair of shows in December in Charlottesville, VA and Ashville, NC. Which brings us to the most recent foray of shows this past month. April brought the band to Philly, DC, Amherst and lastly Brooklyn on Sunday which is where I caught up with them at Baby’s All Right.

These shows were straight up Magnolia & Johnson shows, no openers and two full sets from M&J. The guys opened things up with “Dark Don’t Hide It” which has been their regular opener on virtually all of their recent shows, not to mention the opening track on the aforementioned live album, Trials and Errors. This hard rocking tune is actually a near perfect song to kick things off with its driving guitar and pounding drum back beats. The band would follow up with “Hammer Down” a more laid back countrified song from the What Comes After The Blues collection.

Although Johnson handled the bulk of the lead singing duties throughout the evening, his presence onstage was rather understated and reserved. Truth be told, Will did relatively little talking between songs at all throughout the night. The duty of band MC, so to speak, fell on the shoulders of the “other” Jason in MECO, Jason Evans Groth, a big bear of a man who was clearly quite emotional throughout the evening. Seeing the burly guitar slinger visibly being brought to tears at numerous junctures during the night’s performance was a clear reminder to all who were there of what Molina and his music truly meant to these friends and bandmates of his. I counted three times throughout both of the sets where Groth would be consoled and hugged by Johnson after a particularly moving and emotional song.

As difficult as all of this seemed to be for Groth, it didn’t prevent him from retelling numerous stories of Molina’s. In many instances these little vignettes were as entertaining as the music itself, which says quite a lot about these tales because the music was absolutely sensational. Of particular note was Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner on lap steel guitar. As any of my readers ought to know by now, I am a sucker for pedal steel and let me just say that Mike’s lap steel playing was enough in and of itself to bring me to tears. His style is never over the top but incredibly understated and reserved. But this only makes it even more powerful as it highlights the emotions and general sadness of Molina’s songcraft.

One particular surprise for me was the vocal duties which drummer Mark Rice pulled off. On the handful of songs which Mark took lead vocal duties on, he sounded fantastic. But that’s not to discount the wonderful job Will J. did as the main vocalist on the majority of songs throughout the evening. As I mentioned earlier Will did not do a whole lot of talking throughout the night but he did offer up one little story about the making of his and Jason’s album together regarding how the two managed to work together and their songwriting process for the project. Evidently there was a lot of Lone Star beers and bee bee gun shooting involved.

But seriously, Will recounted how the two would generally retreat to their own space after breakfast each day to work on their song of the day. After a couple of hours the two would get together to see what the other had come up with. It almost became a bit of a competition between the two of them as to who would have produced the better material on any given date. Anyway, one day Jason would come back with an early version of what we would eventually come to know as “Josephine”, which Johnson at the time truly loved. When it came time to finally hit the studio to record, each of them brought a list of their chosen tunes and Johnson was surprised to see “Josephine” missing from Molina’s list of material. Of course when asked, Jason responded that it wasn’t up to snuff. But, as it would turn out, Molina was in fact holding it back to use on the 2009 MECO album which he would name Josphine.

All in all, I have to say I am a bit tongue tied in describing just how special an evening this really was. The nearly 3 hour set was one filled with emotions. Emotions of sadness for sure, but also emotions of appreciation and thankfulness for what Jason left all of us with. I know the vast majority of music fans have never heard of Jason Molina, Songs: Ohia or Magnolia Electric Co., and that is a travesty. Jason was special and it would eventually kill him that life was such a struggle. Jason’s art nonetheless lives on through his recordings and hopefully we will continue to be gifted with the opportunity to experience these wonderful songs live through the efforts of Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co.