A Rocket Ship, Taking Off: Musician Johnny Mullenax
Photography by Ryan “Fivish” Cass
What does it feel like listening to Johnny Mullenax, the expletive-wielding, joint-puffing Eagle Scout (Troop 22) and genre-bending guitar protege bolstering the funk rock music scene in Tulsa? Stand close enough, and you might hear the sound of a rocket ship taking off, blasting forward at high speed.
He’s made a name for himself in Tulsa, Northwest Arkansas and beyond as a preeminent purveyor of bluesy, funk-drenched country, bluegrass and rock and roll, playing with bands all over the region. After a decade playing the live music scene, Mullenax seems to be turning a corner. With big break-level developments on the horizon—a new EP, appearances on the national festival circuit, a new booking contract with Crossover Touring and a 14-show tour across France currently underway—even he can’t wondering if the metaphorical rocket might finally be taking off.
Peers unanimously agree that he’s in a class all his own, a one-of-a-kind talent as good as any household greats. And though his style might feel like a far cry from the French countryside, he boasts an electric live show that communicates across genre, class, now even language barriers.
Mullenax is all talent, no pretense. He’s a simple man of exceptional talent, and his music is raw, uninhibited and authentic, to say the least. It has an uncanny ability to awaken something familial and homegrown within the audience, firmly planting us in Oklahoma dirt and the warmth of community wherever we are.
Plus, absolutely nothing touches the energy of his live show. It’s this exact kind of magic that keeps hundreds of people coming back to The Mercury Lounge week after week to see the rotating cast of characters burn it down at Bluegrass Brunch. Mullenax started the residency two years ago, and it has grown into a veritable music mainstay for Green Country; as quintessentially Tulsan as it gets. More often than not, there’s a stable of all-star, powerhouse musicians playing alongside him, tracking the movements of the song as he riffs and letting it evolve in real time, and a packed house hundreds deep praising it all like gospel. Bluegrass Brunch has become its own kind of church—the jam its creed, and Tulsa music lovers its devout congregation.
At 28, he is quick to point back to that rotating roster of band members he shares stages with as the giants who lift him up: Paul Wilkes on bass, Jake Lynn on drums, Andrew Bair on keys, Nicholas Foster on drums, Michale Frost on drums another day, Michael Schembre on fiddle, Dane Arnold, Tony Spatz, Thomas Trapp ... The list goes on and on, and so do their careers—often to national tours with mainstay country artists like Jason Boland, Wyatt Flores and Paul Cauthen.
“I’ve played with so many great players,” proclaims bandmate and Dead Format Records producer Andrew Bair, “and Johnny is the most impressive guitar player I’ve ever seen in my life, in any genre, in any place. He’s in a world-class category of players.”
Behind the artist’s stoner facade is a heavy dose of hustle, and a massive heaping of the kind of career-defining, natural-born talent that simply cannot be replicated. Mullenax is an incredible guitar player, armed with an insane mastery of rhythm, timing and tone. A tune might sound deeply country one day, and pungently funky the next. Watch him closely, and you’ll start to wonder if he’s not so much playing the music, as channeling it.
“His live show is an amalgamation of traditional bluegrass licks, neo-soul gospel chords and picking patterns that frankly shouldn’t ‘work’ in a bluegrass riff,” Bair continues. “But with Johnny, they simply do. The amalgamation makes sense, and listeners get to hear the full spread of his influence, taste and ingenuity. That’s how you craft your own style: by molding your influences into your own thing.”
“He’s got the Midas touch,” explains singer-songwriter Bridget Lyons of Lyons & Co, who asked Mullenax to play guitar on her latest record. “Everything he touches turns to magic.”
Colleagues describe his style as divine and inventive, and him as a humble but fearless experimenter.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what the **** I’m talking about. This is my first rodeo.”
“His virtuosity is, in my opinion, unmatched by any player in the state,” Bair adds. “He’s a conduit for something different. Maybe he’s an alien? I don’t know.”
Mullenax is shy to call it a gift, pointing instead to professionalism. “I’ve done a ****ing million recording sessions for other artists, I play music full-time and have for 10 years. You kind of learn how to write a song by playing other people’s songs. There’s an efficient way to do it, and a creative way to do it. Finding the balance between being creative and being efficient is how you can be successful as an artist.
“Being a performer is definitely different than being a musician, which is different than being an artist. If you’re gonna bite the head off the bat, you have to be able to write the song and sing the song, or else you’re just a ****in’ weirdo.”
After flying under the radar for the past decade, Mullenax now has critics, agents and organizers taking note. A friend sent a video of him playing to the booking agent for Billy Strings, and Mullenax was scooped up by Crossover Touring shortly thereafter. It’s a game-changing partnership—as he tells it, “it’s the epitome of a lucky break.”
“I think we’re about to see a meteoric rise,” Lyons predicts.
When pressed on where it all comes from, even the guitar man isn’t quite sure how to answer.
“This is what I was supposed to do,” Mullenax says. “I’ve got this God-given talent to play music really, really easily. If I didn’t do it, I think it’d be a waste of my time, and what I can offer the world. I was raised very Catholic, so maybe I have some of that Catholic guilt. But when it’s in your ****in’ soul, or your spirit or whatever, if you have that opportunity to write, or play music or paint a ****in’ picture, it’s a waste of something to not do it.”
After he returns stateside, the band has Guthrie Bluegrass Fest and Bushyhead on the calendar in October. January will bring a coveted appearance at Mile 0 Fest in Key West (fellow Tulsan Ken Pomeroy is also on the bill). Bluegrass Brunch will thrum on in the weeks in between. But Mullenax isn’t getting ahead of himself on where it all might go.
“I think this time next year, we’re gonna be busy as ****. But who knows; I just want to be able to collaborate with a ton of artists that play at a high level. I want to build up this scene, and build up my friends who build me up. It’d be cool to play with Billy Strings one day, but I don’t wanna have any expectations. I’m going in open. Just like with France, I don’t ****in’ know what’s gonna happen. I’m really excited about it, scared, nervous.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what the **** I’m talking about. This is my first rodeo.”
