Introducing: Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co.

Magnolia Electric Co. members team up with Will Johnson as Magnolia and Johnson Electric Co. for September Texas tour and new recordings

Magnolia and Johnson Electric Co.

Hey everyone,

We’re excited to announce something nice that has been quietly in the works for a little while now. Will Johnson and members of Magnolia Electric Co. have joined forces for new recordings as Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co.

In September, Magnolia and Johnson Electric Co. will pay tribute to their work with Jason and perform four shows in Texas, September 18-21, 2025. Today they have also shared a roaring version of "The Big Beast" and announced a seven-inch record out in September.

MECo’s Jason Evans Groth has written beautifully here, exclusively for S&D, on the project, how it came about, why it exists and more.

All the best,

S&D x

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Jason Evans Groth: I saw Will Johnson sitting in the Magnolia Electric Co. van outside the Mohawk in Austin, TX, in October 2008. I wasn’t sure how he got in there, but I was happy to see him, as always, and excited to see him play that night on a bill with us and Tre Orsi. I’d been a fan of Will’s since discovering Centro-Matic—probably through CMJ—in the late ’90s. Back then, it hadn’t occurred to me how close in age I was to the people whose music I admired. That included both Will and my bandmate, Jason Molina. To me, Will was then, and remains, an admirable, seasoned songwriter and rock and roller. I looked up to him as much then as I do now. As usual, I was a little starstruck to encounter him. I also felt a little bad that he had to be in our well-worn van.

Will and I talked about the record he had just made with Jason. I told him I regretted not being there but that, somehow, my absence made the songs even more special to me. I was excited to hear about how it was developing, both the record and the tour. The record came out a year later, but the tour never happened—for the worst possible reason.

Molina and Johnson is a record that changes for me every year, reflecting changes in myself, as all good art does. Recording two of its songs with Will and the rest of Magnolia Electric Co. for the Magnolia and Johnson Electric Co project is easily one of my favorite musical experiences, ever. It took twelve years to even play those songs live, and sixteen to tour them in the way they were meant to be shared. It’s something I waited a long time for—and it turned out brighter and more fulfilling than I ever imagined.

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When Jason told me in early 2008 that he and Will were planning a collaborative record in Texas—not exactly inviting me, but not not inviting me—I was thrilled, but also disappointed. I couldn’t go. Like everyone in Magnolia except Jason, I was working full time or touring with other bands when we weren’t on the road. A few weeks before the session, Jason did finally officially invite me, but I still had to decline. Mikey was the only one from Magnolia who could make it.

When Mikey returned, he handed me a copy of the songs they’d recorded. I was struck by their alone-ness, their spaciousness, and the focus within that space. The melodies in three songs stood out to me immediately: “Twenty Cycles to the Ground,” “Wooden Heart,” and “Josephine.” Having sung harmonies with Jason for years in Magnolia/Songs: Ohia—sometimes successfully—I wasn’t surprised that the record lacked traditional duets. Jason was a brilliant singer, in part because of his uncanny ability to improvise over his own melodies, somehow sharpening their clarity. That kind of improvisation does not lend itself well to harmony singers, though (unless your name is Jennie Benford, in Jason’s case). Will is an incredible singer too, and the way the record showcased their voices separately, not together, was moving. I heard in those songs a kind of support and experimentation that Jason had been craving.

The record was eventually sequenced and titled Molina and Johnson, and subsequently scheduled for release nearly two years later. “Josephine” was left off and became a Magnolia staple—and the title of our next and final album.

From the moment I joined Songs: Ohia, I wrestled with how much of myself to bring into the music without feeling like I was disrupting what Jason had built. As I got older and played in more bands, I learned to make space, something I didn’t understand in my younger days when I was often covering both rhythm and lead guitar or playing in melodic, note-heavy bands that seemed to demand over-playing. I stand by that what matters most in music is sincerity, and that a band is never just one band members’ playing - but it’s a constant work in progress for me.

Molina and Johnson shaped how I approached writing and recording my parts for Josephine. I became less concerned with filling space and more interested in conjuring atmosphere. What wasn't played on Molina and Johnson struck me most—the confidence both Jason and Will had in leaving songs spacious, allowing listeners to fill in the blanks. It was a collaboration between them, and us, the listener.

Magnolia’s second-to-last tour was in Europe in August and September of 2009, right after Josephine came out and just before Molina and Johnson was released. I struggled on that tour—partly due to sleep deprivation on the bus, but mostly because Jason’s drinking had become extraordinarily concerning. Watching my friend in the grip of something I’d long suspected was worsening was heartbreaking. I looked forward to the hour and a half on stage each night, pretending that if we just played well enough, we could chase the demons away. Some shows were magical, but all of it felt like a dream. Or maybe a nightmare.

It was during that tour that Jason asked me to join the Molina and Johnson touring band. I couldn’t see how it would work—his health was deteriorating fast. By the end of that tour, we had to physically help him in and out of the bus. He was 35, and the only energy he seemed to have was for the set. He was trying, I think, for us. When he asked me to join the touring band again, I told him no. For the first time, I didn’t answer based on my schedule—I answered based on my well-being.

After a short break, we returned to Europe for another leg of the tour, and somehow Jason made it back. He had promised to get help, though it was mostly evasive—doctor visits (which turned out to be fabricated), not rehab. When he arrived in Vienna too drunk to stand, at least two of us considered quitting on the spot. But he rallied. The rest of the shows were, in many ways, very good. Our final show was in Istanbul, where Jason and I had a long, brotherly talk. He asked once more if I’d reconsider the Molina and Johnson tour. I told him I couldn’t—but that I’d help however I could. The tour was scheduled to start three weeks later. Days before it was due to begin, Jason canceled both the European and US legs of the tour.

Years later, when he was briefly sober in rehab, I apologized for not being able to say yes to the tour.. He was gracious and told me we might still make it happen. I said I was ready when he was. That time never came.

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In the grief following Jason’s death, I never spoke directly with Will Johnson or any of the musicians who were unable to go out to support Molina and Johnson. In May of 2013, as we were preparing memorial events for Jason in Bloomington, IN, Jonathan Cargill at Secretly Canadian looped me into messages with Will—who couldn’t attend the memorials—but instead dedicated a show to Jason and donated all of the proceeds from it to help with Jason’s medical bills. It wasn’t until fall 2014 that Will and I spoke in person. I was touring with Elephant Micah, opening for Centro-Matic. At a Baltimore house show, three days in, Will and I finally had a chance to sit down and grieve together. I explained the context—how we all struggled to make sense of Jason’s decline and how hard it was to talk about it, since it was, even to us, enigmatic, and Jason’s stories versus the reality of the situation didn’t quite square up. Will was warm, empathetic, and his love for Jason and all of us helped me process the grief. Earlier that year, we had done a short tribute tour with M.C. Taylor. I suggested to Will that maybe we could do something similar together. He was open to it.

In 2019, Mike McAfee of the Bloomington Music Expo told me Will would be in town for the 2020 event and asked if Magnolia wanted to do a set with him. We’d done a few short runs with others—Joe O’Connell of Elephant Micah (twice, in the States), Tim Showalter of Strand of Oaks (once, in Europe)—and were excited to finally work with Will. We played two Molina and Johnson songs with him and others from the Magnolia/Songs: Ohia catalog. It was magical. Will’s collaboration felt like another step toward understanding Jason’s impact. We made plans for a fall tour in Texas. Weeks later the pandemic was named, and plans to tour these songs were, eleven years later, dashed again..

What I love about Will, my bandmates, and what I believe Jason loved too, is our collective willingness to make things work. In 2024, after being asked to contribute to an ACLU benefit compilation, Mark Rice suggested we reach out to Will. We couldn’t make a remote recording happen, so instead we planned a short tour and a new in-person recording to honor both Molina and Johnson and Jason’s legacy.

We met in Austin in March 2025 and recorded three songs in classic Molina fashion—in very little time. We named the project Magnolia and Johnson Electric Co. Will chose the songs: my two favorites from the record, “Twenty Cycles to the Ground” and “Wooden Heart,” and one we'd never recorded in studio: “The Big Beast.” That song only existed as a live track on Trials and Errors and hadn’t been played since my first months in Songs: Ohia. Jason’s lyrics, originally aimed at George W. Bush, feel even more prescient now—and it’s massive playing it again as a six-piece.

The Texas tour also recalls a very Magnolia run in September 2005. We booked eight shows across Texas, inspired by old country and rock legends playing in those same places (and barbecue). We played most of them before evacuating ahead of Hurricane Rita. In hindsight, it was perhaps extraordinary for a non-Texas band to schedule so many dates in Texas for one tour. We played a run that included Lubbock, Odessa, and Marfa - one of my favorite shows ever - and at the after party for the Marfa show I heard Big Star’s take on “Femme Fatale” for the first time. I’ll never forget Jason whispering  “nothing kills a party like a doped-up Alex Chilton” and passing me a Lone Star he didn’t want. 

This year’s stops—Austin, San Antonio, Denton, and Houston—are more than a suitable memorial to that tour, and to remember Jason, who loved Texas, gas station kolaches, painful two-barbecue-meals-in-one-day days, and who wrote one of my favorite songs about Texas, “Texas 71.”

I’m so grateful that after all these years we can finally play these shows with Will, record these songs with Will, honor Will’s and Jason’s amazing record, and honor Jason, too. Jason and his music brought us all together in the first place, and I’m so grateful that we’re still being given the chance to play it.

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Magnolia and Johnson Electric Co. - “The Big Game is Every Night” Texas tour 2025

Thursday, 9/18 - Austin, TX - 29th Street Ballroom - TICKETS

Friday, 9/19 - San Antonio, TX - The Lonesome Rose - TICKETS

Saturday, 9/20 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves - TICKETS

Monday, 9/21 - Houston, TX - Continental Club - TICKETS

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Video for Big Beast / 7” Pre-order & listening links