It’s been an adventurous time for coast artist Johnny Slade. After a 2025 filled with new places, people, and new musical inspirations, he’s back on the coast and booking up for 2026.
Johnny Slade (aka Joe Carrubba when off stage) is a singer and guitarist most often seen playing stripped down acoustic shows, and occassionally fronting his band Johnny Slade and the Fire Brigade. His solo vibe is simple- just a guitar and his voice. He strums with a bright, percussive tone supporting his melodic singing style… relaxed with just a hint of grit. It’s an overall fun and laid back vibe that has landed him in countless venues, performing a huge variety of well known tunes and a collection of newer original song he’s been working up.
“I’m not really going for any specific genre,” Johnny said. “Most of my career I’ve done covers- I recently started writing and I’ve got about an album that I’m in the process of recording right now.”
According to his stories, his music career came about casually and grew into something more serious on its own merit. As a kid he developed a broad musical taste courtesy of his dad’s record collection, which included everything from expansive classic rock artists to Italian opera greats. He gained an interest and first picked up the guitar at around ten years old after hearing the old story that “the guitarist gets the girl.” Jay Marcel, the guitarist in his church at the time and still a friend in music, taught him a few things. By 16 he started playing out around Long Beach and hasn’t stopped since.
“I’ve tried to stop a few times, but everything just shoves me back in,” he quipped. Through various changes in life, in between jobs and relationships… no matter what was going on, he’d find himself being offered gigs and would be back on stage.
“Life is really pushing me to do this music thing.”
Now Johnny sits on a catalog of over eight hours’ worth of music ready to go. Old, new, rock, pop, country… it’s all in there, and he aims to never turn down a request. If it’s a song he knows at least well enough to carry the melody, he’ll look it up on the fly and give it a shot, or learn it for another time. In this mix are a few of his original songs such as “Blow Me Down,” and several of the others that will be on the album he is working up for later this year. He kicked off recording with the Ear Candy Coalition – an association of South Mississippi regional musicians that share their talents, equipment and time to help area artists achieve their sounds. Johnny is working up both stripped down and full band versions of his songs, and personally plays several instruments including drums, piano, trumpet, ukelele, and of course his guitar.
A few months ago, Johnny found himself going all-in with his music in a way that few artists do, and pulled off a national tour completely by the seat of his pants. When a friend invited him to perform at their wedding in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the recently divorced Johnny felt up for an adventure and figured he’d play a few gigs on the way there and back. Without doing any prior booking or contacting a single venue (besides the wedding gig), he loaded up his truck and hit the road.
“I left Mississippi with fifty dollars in my pocket,” he said. Stopping every six hours or so, he popped into different venues and restaurants and offered to play for the night, collecting tips and putting up an occassional live stream on his socials. He got turned down a lot, but he also landed some gigs. Other nights, he’d set up in a park or other public place and do some busking. It was tough… a pure form of “paying your dues” that musicians often talk about… but he made it to Canada. After the wedding, he decided to stay out even longer.
“It was the middle of summer and I didn’t really want to come back to the south yet, so I kind of just started driving across north America. I went all the way over from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine.” He zig zagged around the northeast and east coast a little bit, met up with some friends, celebrated his birthday in West Virginia with a buddy, visited Niagara Falls and Mount Rushmore, and gigged his way back to the coast in time for New Years. In the end, he logged performances in 29 states over two and a half months.
“I kept telling myself ‘I have to be crazy to do this. There’s no way a sane person would do this,'” he laughed. “The hubris that I had leaving Mississippi was incredible.”
Johnny has brought his coast-to-coast experience back to our southern coast for ’26, and has started lining up some regular shows as he gets back into working on his originals. You can find him popping up in spots like Crave Food Hall, Shaggy’s in Pass Christian, Margaritaville and more. On the internet side, you can catch some great performance clips, samples of his originals, and some fun and lighthearted videos from his adventures abroad on his TikTok. Follow for more dates and info, or get out there and catch a show!
~Enjoy Local Music~
scott@coastobserver.com
@ScottiRedd
Facebook @JustAGuitarAndJoe
TikTok @JohnnySladeMusic
Photos from Johnny Slade
B&W cut from Ground Zero Biloxi
Live shot outtakes from reel- shot by Ouu Snap Photography
