John Fullbright was raised and still resides in Okemah, Oklahoma, a hometown he
shares with Woody Guthrie (the photo on the album cover shows him on the front
porch of the house that both he and his father grew up in). Music was a staple
of the Fullbright household, mostly in the form of the family’s diverse and
treasured album collection. “The most trouble I ever got in was when I had done
something to one of my mother’s albums,” Fullbright recalls. The early pull of
music was intense; he started playing piano at age 5, later picking up the
guitar. His relative cultural isolation served him in that he had space to
listen to his own developing voice, but when he was ready to make his way in the
world, he benefitted greatly by being one hour from a great support system for
singer-songwriters. The Blue Door, the legendary venue, took him in and exposed
him to some of the greatest songwriters in the country as they would pass
through town in concert. The founder of The Blue Door, Greg Johnson, was so
taken by Fullbright’s talent, that he began managing him in order to open the
necessary doors for his career to take root. Fullbright and Johnson released a
live album in 2009 that set sales records at Woodyfest, the annual folk festival
honoring Woody Guthrie.
