[1] In the early 1970s, Prudence was a co-founder with Tim Sparks of the vocal jazz group Rio Nido.
[2][3] After her time with Rio Nido, she recorded three solo albums for Red House Records: Vocals, Songs of Greg Brown, and Little Dreamer, the latter a collection of children's lullabies from around the world which earned Johnson a 1992 Grammy Award nomination.
[3] She was awarded a McKnight Fellowship to record Moon Country, a collection of Hoagy Carmichael songs.
[4] In 2005, Johnson produced, directed, and performed in a musical production about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald titled Ten November.
The production featured Claudia Schmidt, Ruth McKenzie, Kevin Kling and Peter Ostroushko.