PICO BLVD — Neville Johnson has been a music attorney in Beverly Hills for the majority of his adult life. He has worked with big names all across the industry, such as Nancy Sinatra, members of the Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac.
Johnson, however, has an alter ego. It's Trevor McShane, a folk-rock-country-pop artist who has been working the Los Angeles coffee house and club circuit since the early 1990s.
The two personas will come together on one stage at McCabe's Guitar Shop on Saturday, Feb. 23, for a show that will feature opening act Johnson as McShane, Rock ‘n' Roll Hall of Fame member Lloyd Price of "Personality" fame and two-time Billboard chart-topper and lead singer of The Fleetwoods, Gretchen Christopher.
Johnson will be promoting his new album, "Evolution of Cool," which was released in January. The 12-track CD provides an eclectic collection of songs, including a cover of the hit "Beyond the Sea," in which he sings some of the lyrics in French.
"Most of my songs are about variations of love," Johnson said. "I can write about lost love and love gone awry, and I do that from both personal experience and from anything that might inspire me, ranging from something I may read or something I may have seen."
Johnson reads the wedding announcements in the Style section of the New York Times to get song ideas from the stories of how couples met.
Johnson's interest in music developed at an early age while listening to pop and rock songs on the radio, starting with Elvis Presley. While attending college at UC Berkeley, he became the music critic at the school newspaper, the Daily Californian.
From there, he started playing guitar around the age of 20, the same year he realized he could make a living as a music lawyer. But he never planned for his music to go anywhere, playing few shows and not promoting his music until recently.
"I never had any intention or desire to ever be a recording or performing musician, nor did I think that I had the ability or talent to do so," Johnson said. "So it was a complete surprise in my middle age to find myself trying to do that or wanting to do that."
Price believes that Johnson has more than enough talent.
"I think he's got a great mind of what he's doing," Price said. "And I like his singing; I love his voice. I'm still wondering why he didn't have a platinum record somewhere in his career."
Price, along with Christopher, will be sharing the stage with Johnson for the first time. Johnson's band will be backing them up as well.
"I'm hoping it will be a grand success and that the band and I will just really flow together and that it will be the start of many wonderful times together," Christopher said.
Christopher will be promoting and signing her 2007 album "Gretchen's Sweet 16," while Price will be promoting his new book, which will be published by Johnson's company, Cool Titles.
Aside from being a lawyer, a musician and dabbling with book publishing, Johnson is also credited with writing the authorized autobiography of UCLA's legendary basketball coach John Wooden.
Johnson's album is available now on iTunes and will also be sold during the performance at McCabe's this Saturday.
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If you go
McCabe's Guitar Shop
3101 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, Calif.
90405
(310) 828-4497
www.mccabes.com
