[1] He heard blues music regularly through performances by his family members; one grandfather was a piano tuner and jazz clarinetist, his grandmother was a pianist, and he had aunts proficient on cello and bass.
[1] Johanson became part of the local music scene in New Orleans but, when Hurricane Katrina struck that area in August 2005, he lost his home and nearly all of his possessions.
Johanson's debut album, Burn It Down, which included percussion on the recording by Benoit and was produced and engineered by the latter, was released in October that year.
[1][4][6] The same year, Johanson took part in a jam concert with the North Mississippi Allstars's Luther Dickinson, at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
[4] This led to him to his next album, Below Sea Level, which was recorded at Zebra Ranch Studios in the North Mississippi hill country.
In addition to Johanson's guitar and vocals, it saw Cody Dickinson play drums, Terrence Grayson on bass, and Ray Jacildo adding a Hammond organ contribution to one track.
[9] Johanson utilised several high-tech audio recording gadgetry to give an authentic and crystal clear sound quality, including using Pro Tools, noting that the online competition was strong for such a venture.
[10] In late 2020, Johanson, having had positive feedback from his streamed service, noted "I'm working right now on a little release of acoustic covers.
Other songs reformulated were The Cardigans' "Feathers and Down", Taj Mahal's "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes", with the Willie Dixon penned "My Babe", along with the Neville Brothers' "Yellow Moon", the Beatles' "And I Love Her", plus older source material such as Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Goin' Down to the River" and the jazz standard, "My Melancholy Baby".