Huff - a power-sound specialist who
has worked in studios with such varied female giants
as Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Shania Twain,
Donna Summer and Reba McEntire - took over as
Johnson's co-producer when her first one, Paul
Worley, became an executive at a competing label.
But Huff and Johnson were hardly strangers.
"I'm a huge fan of his guitar playing, and he
played on my first record," Johnson recalls.
"And then he would just randomly call me out of the
blue for no gain on his part, because I was working
with Paul then. Dann was like, 'I saw your picture
at Tower Records - I'm so proud of you, girl.' Or 'I
just saw the "Complicated" video, and that is a
great song.' Or 'My daughter can't believe I played
on that.' I think I got four calls from him like
that over the course of maybe a year and a half or
two years. He genuinely was a supporter of me and my
music.And he's such a genius musician in
the studio. In my head, I hear melodies and stuff,
too, and sometimes I'll sing 'em to a musician and
say, 'Can you try playing this?' I'm always
wondering how far I can go, but if I hear something,
I want them to try it. And Dann was totally open to
that. He never made me feel like my ideas were
unimportant. I'd sing little things, and he'd take
it and do it, then put an extra flair of his own
stuff on it. So it was the right choice, going to
him. Paul had talked with me before about maybe
doing a few tracks with Dann, anyway. So it worked
out."
As suggested by Johnson's pro-activism in the
studio, Huff had a lot to work with. For at least
a half-dozen years in Nashville, Johnson has been
artistically on fire. In addition to penning
songs for a long list of other people, including
Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Pam Tillis, Jo Dee
Messina, Chely Wright, Mindy McCready, Lila McCann,
Linda Davis and SHeDAISY, Johnson wrote every song
on her initial CD and all but one on the new album.
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