“GREAT guitar throughout these nine, tight, non-overproduced songs. Very fluid and imaginative playing and Alex isn’t afraid to take chances. An excellent album.” —Tom Guerra, Vintage Guitar Magazine

“[‘These Are The Days’] . . . really packs a punch. –A.J. Wachtel

“‘These Are the Days’ shows Colorway’s breadth, without stinting on depth […] a rock-solid collection of songs with catchy hooks, taut riffs and hard-won wisdom.”–Eric R Danton, Listen, Dammit (Paste/WSJ/Rolling Stone)

“This record sounds f*cking great! Sounds like you’re channeling Golden Earring . . .  which is f*cking sweet.” –Chris Collingwood, Fountains of Wayne/Look Park

“Their third album is their strongest yet . . . songs you want to drive to on a summer day . . . songs to put a smile on your face.” —Lauren Daley, Southcoast Today/The Boston Globe

“And shine they certainly do . . . with songs that will appeal to timeless pop-rock fans.” –PowerOfPop, Singapore

“Alex’s guitar playing is exceptional, and the whole vibe is positive and fun–well done!” —Morgan Fisher, Mott the Hoople/Queen

“The nine tunes here showcase his ability to craft hooky pop-rock tunes and fill them with his always inventive guitar work.” –Sheryl Hunter, Greenfield Recorde

Great review of “These Are The Days” by Eric R. Danton, Listen Dammit (Paste/Pitchfork/Rolling Stone)

Every music town has people like F. Alex Johnson: the ones who seem like they’re always in motion, always enriching the scene, but don’t always have the visibility of peers whose names resonate further afield. Johnson has been that guy in Northampton for nearly 30 years, with the Drunk Stuntmen, as lead guitarist for the Young at Heart Chorus and, since 2012, with Colorway. The band’s new album, “These Are the Days,” is a rock-solid collection of songs with catchy hooks, taut riffs and hard-won wisdom.

Johnson and bassist Matthew Clegg and drummer/singer Riley Godleski — successors to original members Dave Hayes and JJ O’Connell — play together in a deep musical pocket, guitar riffs snaking their way through tight rhythm parts on songs that leave plenty of room for Johnson’s tuneful voice. He’s an unfussy singer with an ear for melody, and more than one of the songs here seems destined to spend time stuck in your head. “Love Is All Around You” is effervescent and catchy, and Johnson’s vocals on the title track provide a through line over a guitar part that alternates between noodly riffage and cascading arpeggios. Fountains of Wayne and Look Park singer Chris Collingwood adds backing vocals on the track, and also contributes to the sunny indie-pop number “Always Been Summer.” After a poppy first half, the album takes a more ornate turn on songs that have a different sense of urgency. Collingwood likened the sound to Golden Earring, which is about right on “Want to Be Everywhere,” with its propulsive rhythm and epic guitars. “Give It Away” has an uptempo boogie feel, while “Eyes Like Fire” is a full-throttle rocker full of bristling guitar and a wah-wah break.

Though Johnson’s guitar playing is often, and deservedly, a main focus, the songs on “These Are the Days” show Colorway’s breadth, without stinting on depth. It’s the kind of album that just might bring the band some attention beyond the Pioneer Valley.

Review of “These Are The Days” by A.J. Wachtel (The Noise)

Show preview and album review from Motif Magazine 

Written by Jake Bissaro. Originally published in Motif Magazine, 11/9/16

On Friday, November 18th, the Western Mass rock band Colorway will be treating the Ocean State to a free show at Pour Judgement in Newport. Colorway combines Big Star hooks with guitar wizardry to create catchy earworms that make the repeat button come in handy.

Some may know frontman Alex Johnson as the former lead guitarist for Northampton alt-country outfit Drunk Stuntmen and as the guitarist from the Young at Heart Chorus, a group of 70+-year-olds who sing punk songs. In 2013, after decades as a sideman, Johnson decided to step into the spotlight, with excellent results.

Colorway’s second album, The Black Sky Sequined, came out in 2015 to much acclaim. From the sound of it, Johnson has settled into the new digs easily, doubling up on lead guitar and vocals, often at the same time. The band also has a great rhythm section and awesome harmonies courtesy of Matt Clegg on bass and Riley Godleski on drums.

I’m a sucker for a well-crafted guitar solo, and Colorway’s are way more than just tearing through the pentatonic scale. Johnson pulls from a sizable bag of tricks that help keep every song fresh.

He’s no slouch in the lyrics department, either. After years of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, Johnson got sober, and reflects on his newfound lifestyle in “I Never Changed.”

“I washed all my clothes in gasoline/And abandoned my unique identity/All my plaids/All my stripes/Burned a brilliant runway white.”

“Telephone” is an entertaining look at the overbearing presence of technology.

“I used to look ahead/But this is the future/In the palm of my hand/No matter where you are/A plane a train a car/Just can’t beat my telephone there.”In a time when it’s so easy to grab a MacBook and throw in tons of reverb, delay and whatever else the kids are using these days, it’s really refreshing to hear an album with well-crafted, un-fooled-around-with rock songs that stand on their own. And they totally pull it off live; other than occasional extra guitar track, what you’re hearing on Black Sky is what you’re getting in the flesh.

Colorway is based in Northampton, Massachusetts, the center of the great music scene that has recently produced acts like And the Kids and Speedy Ortiz. The Western Massachusetts scene reminds me a lot of Providence: big enough to be interesting and diverse, but small enough that you’re able to grab a beer with the guy you just saw doing a stage dive. I attended UMass Amherst right down the road, and have many fond memories of the Iron Horse and Pearl Street.

This will be a good one, so get out and see it if you can!

Colorway plays Pour Judgement on Friday, Nov 18 at 10pm. Show is free!

Stellar Review by The Valley Advocate! 

Review by Hunter Stylesoriginally published in the Valley Advocate, 10/29/15

Where on the spectrum does Colorway play? I might say these musicians are best at capturing the light, bright tones of late morning or mid-afternoon, given their talent for writing sunny and engaging pop songs.

But band leader F. Alex Johnson, one of the founders of the alt-country group Drunk Stuntmen, has a nocturnal cast about him. He is a veteran of the local roadhouse rock scene, lit by neon and bathed in shadow. From his thick and gritty guitar work, it shows.

The songs on Colorway’s second full-length album, The Black Sky Sequined, strike a sublime balance between light and dark, sweet and dour. Across 10 tracks — some good; some great — the band leans radio-friendly, and nothing here reinvents the wheel. But if you’re a fan of no-nonsense, head-boppin’ rock albums, you’ll wear a nice groove into this one.

Through his un-showy singing style and introspective lyrics, Johnson mostly comes off as a softie — his other regular gig is playing guitar with Northampton’s Young@Heart senior chorus — and here he is wishing on good deeds and second chances. “Maybe all the pressure/ didn’t make a gem/ Anyone can sparkle/ We can live again,” he sings on “Gen Exit,” the catchy opening track. “Take me, I am ready/ I can feel it kicking in.”

That song — full of driving drums, crisp electric guitar riffs, and rich moments of harmony — sets the tone for a streamlined and cleanly-produced record. With nice work from Dave Hayes on bass and JJ O’Connell on drums, these tunes are full of texture, but sleekly composed.

That’s no big surprise, since the self-produced album — which was recorded by Mark Alan Miller at Sonelab in Easthampton — was mastered in Portland, Maine by veteran sound engineer Bob Ludwig, who won several Grammy awards in February, including two for Beck’s Morning Phase, which won album of the year.

At one point, Johnson says, Ludwig exclaimed that the fifth track had “a great solo … there’s lots of great solos on this record.” Ludwig is right. And the song he was referring to, called “Me and My Baby,” is one of the album’s standouts, leaping back and forth between crunchy blues-rock verses and dreamy power-chord refrains, like a Black Keys song swept up by Fountains of Wayne.

“Maybe you’ll see me tomorrow/ and we can try it again,” Johnson sings. “Maybe you’ll see me tomorrow/ and we can try to be friends.”

That’s Colorway’s message in a nutshell. When Johnson sings about life’s trials, he has mud on his boots but stars in his eyes. He has been around the block a few times. But whenever he circles back to familiar turf, he’s prepared to see it in a new light.

Colorway plays The Half Door in Hartford on Nov. 4. The Black Sky Sequined is available for digital download at colorwaymusic.com and in-store at select businesses in Amherst, Easthampton, and Northampton.•

High Praise for The Black Sky Sequined from Modern Rock Review 

Review by Ric Albano. Originally published in Modern Rock Review, 8/29/15

The Black Sky Sequined, is the second album by the Massachusetts-based trio, Colorway. The music is a showcase for vocalist and guitarist F. Alex Johnson, who fuses strong elements of new wave and classic rock with well-formed melodies and arrangements which are just unique enough to give everything a nice edge. While the compositions on the surface seem standard, even simple, they each contain enough underlying complexity to require additional listens to fully catch and appreciate everything presented here.

For about a decade through 2008, Johnson and drummer J.J. O’Connell were in an alt-rock group called Drunk Stuntmen. Johnson admits that he embraced the “Drunk” part of the group’s name too strongly and decided to leave the group and take a break from music for several years. However, the music sought Johnson out as he woke at night with new melodies in his head which he slowly developed into songs. In 2012, he got back in touch with O’Connell and recruited bassist Dave Hayes to rehearse and record new music. The result was Colorway’s self-titled debut album which was released in June 2013 with the trio playing their first ever live gig at the CD release party. Both the recording and live performance were well received and the group has been steadily playing since.

While Johnson again wrote most of the material for The Black Sky Sequined, the sound was forged more collectively as a true working band. Like the debut, this album was recorded at Sonelab in Easthampton, MA and co-produced/engineered by Mark Alan Miller, with whom Johnson has been working for about twenty years. Further, it was mastered by Grammy Award winning Bob Ludwig, who has over 3,000 credits to his name dating back to The Beatles, the Stones and Jimi Hendrix. The album got its title from a poem written by Johnson’s late mother, Judy.

The album begins with “Gen Exit”, with a straight forward pop/rock drilling riff until more variety is added to the riff in the later verses. The slight guitar lead is simple but effective, with the profound lyrical message of; “Its awful gray between holding your own and just hanging around.” “Come Back July” features a strong, thumping bass and overall rhythm throughout the verse that really draws in the listener. The highly melodic vocals that get the point across of the lyrical theme of life going by too quickly. The first single from the album, “Come Back July” was actually written by Johnson between 9pm and midnight on July 31st, where the prospect of August meant the coming of Fall and the cold of New England.

Come back July I never said goodbye, Light all those lonely Roman candles into that August sky…”

“I Don’t Want to Go Home” is a song which has a different vibe than the previous two, a much more classic rock approach, especially with the thick, bluesy electric guitars and fine guitar lead by Johnson, arriving for the first of many times on the album. This song also references the album’s title in the lyric. “Explain” has a jazzy rock approach, especially with the animated bass and top notch drumming by the rhythm section. There is also a different melodic approach originally before the song does eventually build with a stronger rock arrangement. In contrast, “Me and My Baby” has a dark country/rock feel, slow and direct with plenty of room for strong guitar notes to whine throughout this six minute, extended track. This complex song goes through various interesting changes in the middle before returning to the main theme and a fantastic ending guitar riff which persists through a long outro with multiple vocal harmony parts reminiscent of a technique used by Phish.

The oddest song on the album, “The Cycle” begins with rich vocal harmonies over a simple intro guitar before the song then enters a long guitar lead for its entertaining duration. “Tiny Town” returns to pop/rock with assertive riffing between the melodic words and animated drumming by O’Connell that nicely works in tandem with the thumping bass line of Hayes. A later overdubbed, whining guitar dances around the crunchy original rhythm guitar, which never relents in the mix, offering some odd musical tension that makes this track distinct. “Everybody Wants Me to Love You” is, perhaps, the closest to filler on the entire album, not all that terrible as a rapid ska-influenced track, but also not all that inventive compared to the rest of the music.

“I Never Changed” is a bluesy song with entertaining lyrics and an interesting overall arrangement which was co-written by Jodi Lynn Nicholas. Overall, the measured interplay between lead vocals and guitar licks make it one of the stronger tracks on the album. Perhaps the strongest overall, is the closer “Telephone”, which starts as a happy-go-lucky pop song commenting on contemporary culture and reliance on technology. Later on the song makes some interesting turns before it finishes with an excellent, extended guitar solo along with the inclusion of a slight horn section as a closing jam which leaves the listener wanting for more.

On The Black Sky Sequined the group successfully forged the kind of music which maximized their talents while being accessible to a large listening audience. In total, Colorway has released one of the finest rock albums of 2015.

Skope Magazine gives TBSS 4/5 Stars

Review by Jason Hillenburg originally published in Skope 6/16/15

Lou Reed never believed rock music, the great populist art form of our age, was condemned to disposability. He devoted significant time in the second half of his career to writing works of extraordinary depth like New York, Magic and Loss, and Songs for Drella with the hopes these albums combined the thematic weight of a literary work with the visceral punch of rock instrumentation. Opinions vary wildly about the merit of such an exercise or his ultimate success. Colorway, without question, aspires to the same ideal on their album The Black Sky Sequined. They couple wiry, lean musical textures with sharply observed lyrics in an aural equivalent of Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” that if writers know “… enough of what [they are] writing about [they] may omit things that [they know] and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.” From the failed and faded dreamers in songs like “Gen Exit” to the anguished narrators and clenched-fist survivors of songs like “Explain” and “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, Colorway and lyricist F. Alex Johnson know more than they are showing and The Black Sky Sequined is a better experience for it.

“Gen Exit” opens the album and sets the sonic paradigm. Johnson’s guitar work has extraordinary suggestiveness. His terse phrasing has such a clean, decisive touch that each line seems bristling with barely contained energy. The rhythm section of Dave Hayes on bass and J.J. O’Connell on drums is wiry and unobtrusive, but their penchant for creating space in the composition distinguishes their playing and Johnson fills these spaces with attentive vocals. There’s not a great deal of emotion in Johnson’s vocal beyond an appealing, darkly sardonic edge. That’s the point. This is an observer’s voice offering listeners a precise character study in miniature and those moments of implied judgment in his vocal add immeasurably to the performance.

“Come Back July” invokes nostalgia for lost time in its first two verses with almost Proustian recall of detail. The opening simile sets the tone for simple, yet breathtakingly exact, imagery like tearing up a calendar, shaking the sand from your shoes, and driving to the water. Johnson’s technique of marrying the specific with the universal is on full display here with the song’s later turn towards generalities and the band’s minimalist backing approximates the rousing energies of the season with confidence and tastefulness. The mid-tempo blues burn of “Explain” will immediately grab attention with Johnson’s authoritative tightrope walk on the fret board. It’s easy to fall into overstatement on a song like this, but his playing maintains a delicate balancebetween pathos and guitar-hero histrionics.

Colorway take an unexpected turn with the largely instrumental “The Cycle”. Rather than offering up more of the stripped-down guitar attack of earlier songs, Colorway elongates melodies and stretches out instrumentally without ever losing the economy of approach characterizing the album as a whole. “Everybody Wants Me to Love You” percolates with a caffeinated bounce and shows off more humor than perhaps any other track on the album. The Black Sky Sequined concludes with the layered, yet subtly humorous, “Telephone”. It’s perhaps not the most original of subjects, looking at the alienating effects of technology on our basic human need to connect, but Johnson’s lyric and another convincing vocal colors familiar ground with unexpected flair.

It isn’t a perfect outing. Some songs are a bit longer than needed and will upset, for some, the aesthetic heard elsewhere on the album. Colorway’s The Black Sky Sequined excels when everything is pared back to the bone – at its best, the clarity and immediacy are overwhelming

Score: 4/5 Stars

Brooklyn’s The Big Takeover on The Black Sky Sequined 

Review of The Black Sky Sequined from The Noise, Boston, MA.

Review by Francis DiMenno.

Opener “Gen Exit” is classic ’70s rock with elements of BTO, Deep Purple, and other arena-rock stalwarts. The ’70s-centric approach sets the stage for much of what is to follow. “Come Back July” has the casual feel of Wreckless Eric, but with a similar arena rock superstructure. “I Don’t Want to Go Home” reminds me a bit of the hippified excursions of Steve Miller, with a bit of Beatles tucked in. “The Cycle” offers a bit of a change-up, with harmony vocals and a new-agey chiming guitar as intro and a melancholic guitar line which is an intriguing bit of rock craftsmanship. The excellent, lively, “Everybody Wants Me to Love You” has a rhythm reminiscent of XTC’s “Crowded Room,” which devolves into a chugging rock song replete with clangorous guitar runs and a slap-happy hook in the refrain. “Telephone” is a jaunty number, with an impressively catchy rhythm line and horn section, and with extended guitar runs stretched out to epic length good enough to encourage nearly every budding young guitarist to go and do likewise. That Northampton-based guitarist and songwriter F. Alex Johnson, with bassist Dave Hayes and drummer J.J. O’Connell, manage to create as full a sound as they do as a trio, and to bring a kind of rugged enthusiasm to their approach, is a mark in their favor. 

Originally published April 29, 2015 in The Noise.

The Black Sky Sequined gets 4 of 5 stars from Dangerdog Music Reviews 

Review by Craig Hartranft. Originally published 4/22/15

Colorway is the creation of the quite accomplished Boston guitarist and songwriter Alex Johnson, along with his rhythm section Dave Hayes on bass and J. J. O’Connell on drums. Put power trio out of your mind for the moment. Colorway is definitely a platform for Johnson’s voice in songwriting and guitar.

Johnson has a consistent sound across the album. The tone of his guitar has a balance of raw and crispness, a sharpness as it were, but still smooth. At times he reminds me of a mash up of Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and that Aussie dude, Keith Urban. Wrap your head around that combination. I liked it best when the licks and groove of his leads were extended, in the true sense of a guitar solo, as within The Cycle or Telephone. The latter song demonstrates Johnson’s gift for arranging, countering his guitar with some horns. Additionally, Johnson is a solid vocalist with a clean melodic style. He works his voice with the rest of the band for some strong harmonies. As for the rhythm section I was looking for some descriptive words. Unpretentious, but solid and skillful, a complete compliment to Johnson’s guitar and compositions.

My conclusion, in the end, is that Johnson’s guitar work overshadows most everything here, from lyrical voice to basic song composition. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily so, but it did have me listening more for his guitar chops than anything else. So call Colorway and The Black Sky Sequined a guitar-centered album. It’s rather self-evident. Recommended.

 Read this review and many others at Dangerdog Music Reviews.

Punk Globe with a quick take on the new album

Thanks to Ginger Coyote at Punk Globe for her quick review of The Black Sky Sequined. 

“The CD has ten good tracks and well worth a listen.”

Praise from Singapore

Originally published 9/18/2013

Rock n’ roll will never die! This just might be power trio Colorway‘s manifesto on this eponymous debut. Rollicking numbers like “I’m Still Running” and “Live With Me” get the point across very succinctly. But singer-songwriter F Alex Johnson is also able to shake things up somewhat with the the sweet lullaby “Go Back to Sleep”, the acoustic instrumental “For the Birds” and the luscious ballad “A Temporary Occupation”. Highly recommended.

~Kevin Mathews, Powerofpop.com, Singapore

Originally published in the Valley Advocate, 8/22/2013

Colorway, Colorway
(Molehill Mountain Productions)

At its core, F. Alex Johnson’s debut solo effort is, in his own words, “a rock and roll record” through and through. Spanning the spectrum of rock styles (and the neck of his guitar), Johnson’s 12 original songs are held up as much by their sweet guitar riffs as by their catchy, stuck-in-your-head-all-day melodies. “I’m Still Running,” “This Happens to Everyone” and even “Style of the Time” are on one end of that spectrum, as hard-charging and head-banging as any mainstream rock song. The more surprising turns on the album come in the form of slower songs, like rock lullaby “Go Back to Sleep,” where Johnson and co-writer Jodi Lynn Nicholas relate the feeling of waking from a bad dream, and a gorgeous acoustic instrumental, “For the Birds.” Catchy stuff with nice rock harmonies.

—Erin McDaniel

Colorway, Colorway (Molehill Mountain Productions )

In His Own Words: A Review Of Colorway’s First Live Performance By Connolly Ryan