Kraig Jarret Johnson of Golden Smog, Run Westy Run, and Kraig Jarret Johnson & The Program, for a special edition of Down by the Old Main Street Stream, this Saturday, May 23 at 7:30 pm CT / 5:30 pm PT on the Aster Cafe Facebook. Kraig and some of his friends have have special plans cooked up for this holiday weekend virtual concert. Tune in to catch all the fun, beamed straight from his Main Street studio to your viewing screen of choice through the wonders of streaming technology. Until live shows return, this is the next best thing to being at one.

This event will be streamed on the Aster Cafe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/astercafeminneapolis/

The Aster is happy to announce the launch of a regular live streaming series, “Down by the Old Main Street Stream!”,  on our Facebook page. While live music gatherings are currently on hold, we’re excited to be able to share some great online options with our loyal customers on a regular basis. Stay tuned for future streaming events. We miss our artist friends; please try to support them any way you can during this challenging period.

Kraig Jarret Johnson is an American songwriter, singer, guitarist and recording artist from Minneapolis who has performed and recorded with Run Westy Run, The Jayhawks, Golden Smog, Iffy, Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts, members of R.E.M., Ray Davies of The Kinks and his own band, Kraig Jarret Johnson & The Program.

As a teenager, he played guitar and sang with Run Westy Run, a Minneapolis band he formed with his brothers in the halcyon days of indie punk in the 1980s. The band’s early SST records — one produced by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, another by Husker Dü drummer Grant Hart — garnered immediate acclaim and the “Westies” quickly became known for their raucous, often ecstatic, live shows. Johnson teamed again with his brother Kirk in Iffy, a funky outfit that rode the first crest of electronically-inflected rock in the late 1990s. In 2004 Johnson released his first album under his own name.

Johnson was a founding member of what initially was a whimsical side project, Golden Smog, that eventually grew into a powerhouse supergroup that featured members of The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Wilco and Big Star. Golden Smog’s 3 superb albums from 1996-2006 easily transcend any of the “side project” labels that often get thrown at these kind of releases – Johnson’s contributions are a key component in all of them.

Johnson eventually joined The Jayhawks in the mid 1990s for two critically-acclaimed records: The Sound Of Lies and Smile, and began many tours of the world. Johnson rejoined The Jayhawks in 2014 and 2015 to support the reissues of those classic 1990s ‘hawks albums.

Johnson has co-written songs with a diverse group of artists, including Angela McCluskey, Gary Louris, Jeff Tweedy, Charlie Drayton and the late singer Chrissie Amphlett of the Divinyls. His work has appeared in several films, including Sunshine Cleaning, Clerks and The Music Never Stops.

His most recent effort is the Kraig Jarret Johnson & The Program. Produced by Ed Ackerson and David Poe, the album was released by the Minneapolis-based Susstones label in early 2018.

Kraig Jarret Johnson Official Bandcamp Page