As a solo artist and as a go-to guitarist for numerous world-renowned acts, Nashville-based guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer Johnny “Duke” Lippincott draws upon a musical vocabulary that spans the spectrum from the delta blues to Debussy. As a songwriter and performer, he merges masterful technique and remarkable depth of feeling with themes that touch on the essence of the human experience. Johnny’s inimitable balance of ease and intensity on his instrument distinguishes him as both an innate and cultivated musical talent. According to David Bromberg, “If you work hard enough, you can reach a stage where it seems as though the music is coming from somewhere else and is simply going through you. That’s Johnny. He’s there all the time. This is very, very rare.”

In music and in life, Johnny exudes a sense of clarity, presence, and humble wisdom. His deeply introspective 2022 solo release, Sonic Valley, is both dreamy and spirited, with elements of folk, rock, jazz, blues, psychedelia, electronica, and trance that culminate in an astonishing clarity of tone and message. Pollinating songs with a mix of cultural and stylistic influences, he’s described his creative intention as tapping into multiple levels of consciousness and “clothing a mystical experience in music.” On “Galaxy Love,” the opening track, he sings, “Time and space fall away/into sand, into clay/and all the while, I’m lost in love.” An infectious groove topped with cool jazz licks form the essence of “Get Away,” while “New Moon” zooms in on his guitar virtuosity. “Galaxy Love,” “Children of Light,” and “Calling Out for Love,” center the album, blending layers of sound into a lush and poignant unity. In terms of performance, Duke showcases the full breadth of his talent, featuring acoustic, electric, slide, and fingerstyle elements, which he melds with touches of organ, pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, accordion, electronica, percussion, and his own warm, welcoming vocals. An epic mystical and sonic journey, this self-produced album gradually builds into an ecstatic experience of musical and spiritual realization.

Johnny Duke was born in Knoxville and spent the latter part of his childhood going back and forth between his father’s house in rural Mississippi and his mother’s in Wilmington, Delaware. After picking up his first guitar at the age of ten, he was soon sitting in with local blues musicians, including Willie Kind and Terry “Harmonica” Bean, at festivals and small clubs around the Mississippi Delta. At age fourteen, Johnny began sitting in with David Bromberg on a regular basis, a seminal relationship that significantly shaped him musically and personally. In 2006, D'Addario Strings awarded him a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he formed and toured with the band Johnny Duke and the Aces. Since graduating in 2009, he’s backed a long list of musical legends, including Little Big Town, B.B. King, Keb’ Mo’, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ashley Monroe, Lee Ann Womack, Vince Gill, Jimmy Buffett, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, Don Was, Maren Morris and more. Johnny recorded electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, and pedal steel on two of Little Big Town’s platinum selling albums, Tornado and Painkiller. As a sideman, he’s toured worldwide, appearing at numerous renowned venues, including Madison Square Garden, The Kennedy Center, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Red Rocks in CO, Wolf Trap, and The Ryman Auditorium, as well as on TV shows such as Ellen and Kelly Clarkson. As a songwriter, Johnny co-wrote Jimmy Buffett’s single Slow Lane from his 2020 album Life On The Flip Side.

Johnny lives in Nashville, where he runs Spirit Radio Studios and lives with his wife and young son.