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Singer/songwriter Johnnie Lawson recently retired his well-known Pack
River Band to embark on a solo career under the stage name, Bent
Whiskers. Since 1981, the band he led had been home to more than 40
local musicians. (Photo by DAVID GUNTER)
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Songwriter slips into solo career
By DAVID GUNTER
Correspondent
SANDPOINT - Depending on his
mood at the moment, he hangs
one arm over the shoulder of his
guitar like an old pal, or pulls it
close to him at the waist like a
treasured lover. And like a couple
who have been close for many
years, he and the instrument
complete each another's
sentences, talking in and around
and, sometimes, over one
another.
What were those years in
Nashville like?
"You know …," the songwriter
starts to say, his face bunching up
in concentration as he searches for
the right words. In the space
created by the pause, his left hand
creeps up the guitar neck and
feels around for the right chord.
And then he starts to sing a
melody that embroiders a story
that answers the question
precisely and perfectly.
These days, he performs under the
stage name "Bent Whiskers."
Generations of local music lovers
would be more likely recognize
him by his given name, Johnnie
Lawson.
At the end of last year, Lawson
punctuated more than a quarter
century of picking with what has
to be one the longest running
musical groups in the region when
he retired his Pack River Band.
From 1981 through New Year's
Eve of 2007, he fronted a group
that, at one time or another,
featured at least half of the
professional musicians in North Idaho.
"We considered everybody who played with us for one night or more - and got paid - a member of the Pack
River Band," the leader said.
By that measure, the band's personnel included a total of more than 40 musicians, most of whom shared their
talents on the stage as part of the house band at Bert's Place - a friendly roadhouse where cowboys, hippies,
truckers and white-collar workers could coexist amicably.
See LAWSON, Page 3
One catalyst for this unusual chemistry was the owner, Bert Lawson, who ran the place like an easygoing mom,
but wielded an iron fist to anyone foolish enough to cause trouble. But the second reason the mix worked so well
was the music itself. Whether interpreting a country standard or belting out old-time rock n'roll, Johnnie was a
musical chameleon who managed to step into each song, preserve its original spirit and make it his own at the
same time.
"I never could sing a song if I didn't feel it," he said. "I see what I'm singing and it makes me uncomfortable if I
can't put the emotion into it that it takes for me to really feel it."
As bandleader of the Pack River Band, Lawson kept the welcome mat out for great players who had a weekend
off and wanted to sit in. They would wander in with their instrument cases in tow and sit somewhere near the
stage, knowing that they would invariably be called up "for a song" that would almost always turn into a setlong
jam. In that sense, Lawson is that rare type of performer who is at home in the spotlight, but is happy to
share its glow with a fellow musician.
Generosity ran in the Lawson family. After the crowd cleared out on Saturday nights, Bert would often hand over
the band's pay with the announcement that they were expected to be back on stage Sunday afternoon for a
benefit performance to help out a family whose house had burned down, a mother with cancer, or a young
couple who had a sick baby.
"We did a lot of benefits over the years," Johnnie said. "Mom was big on helping people. We didn't always go to
church, but she was very religious. We broke away from the church, but mom never broke away from doing
good."
He shared the story of a Bert's Place patron who said he was down on his luck and told Bert he needed a few
dollars to buy groceries. She slipped him a twenty and told him not to worry about paying it back, just as she
had done for other folks going through hard times. Later that day, she saw the same man bellied up to a
downtown bar instead of picking up food for the family.
"It made me mad that he took my money and then just drank it away," Johnnie recalls his mother saying. "But it
made me even madder that he was drinking it away in someone else's bar."
Lawson's singing career started at a wee age, when he helped lead the singing as a 5-year-old in church. He
started his first band in the Army while he was stationed in Korea and began performing as a solo artist when he
left the military as a chief warrant officer in 1979.
"I was playing with a beat box machine that I called Sidney," Lawson said. "One night, Sidney kept speeding up
and slowing down in the middle of songs and I couldn't figure out what was going on. It turned out I had the
beat box plugged into the same circuit as the club's walk-in freezer. Every time they'd open or close the door,
the tempo would change."
He kept up his relationship with on-stage electronics throughout most of the Pack River Band's existence,
mounting a minicomputer in front of his microphone stand and using it as the teleprompter for lyrics to the 400-
plus tunes in his virtual songbook.
As Bent Whiskers, the singer/songwriter enters the latest stage of performing with technology. He still has a
computer beside him for each show, but these days it triggers entire band arrangements that Lawson has
programmed into his "Band in a Box" software.
"So now I can perform my original songs with bass, drums and even some keyboard and fiddle," he said. "I first
used the software as a tool to take my own songs to the band and say, 'This is how the song goes - let's learn
it.'
"But as Bent Whiskers, I decided to go ahead and use it as my band," he added. "There's so few places where
you can book a whole band any more, because they can't afford it. It was great to have the Pack River Band for
all that time, but it's hard to get a group like that together and keep it going for years."
As a songwriter, Lawson made the ritual pilgrimage to Nashville and spent two years shopping his songs around.
He was there during a dry period when record companies weren't signing new artists, but came away with
several new songs from the experience.
One of his latest creations was penned as a fundraising vehicle for the Wishing Star Foundation. Lawson will
perform the song, "Wishing Star" as well as another new tune called "Help Us Find a Cure" for the first time on
Oct. 25 at 1:00 p.m., when the local Wishing Star chapter celebrates the organization's 25th anniversary at the
City Beach Pavilion. He plans to make the songs available on his Web site, with all donations going to Wishing
Star and cancer research at Kootenai Memorial Hospital, respectively.
Many of his songs are already available as free downloads on the Internet - a tool Lawson uses to get his music
in front of a wider audience.
His lyric tenor voice sounds much the same as it always has - a gentle Willie Nelson vibrato combined with a
Hank Williams turn of phrase. But the tone color and the point-of-view have become more world wise, calling for
a new character to help reach a new audience.
Enter Bent Whiskers.
"All of my songs follow stages of my life; that's what we write from," Lawson said. "At this stage in my life - as
ol' Bent Whiskers - I'm too old to get picked up for a recording contract. I'm an independent artist sharing my
songs for free because I just want to get them heard."
For a complete list of musicians who have performed with the Pack River Band, as well as a photo history of the
group, song downloads and the story of how local singer/songwriter Charley Packard helped give the band its
name, visit www.bentwhiskers.com.