Johnny B to perform ‘Rhythm of the North’ this weekend

The July 5 performance at Pier One will be his last performance of the show this season.

This weekend, John Bushell (known locally by his performance name “Johnny B”) will host his final showing for the season of his original music and storytelling act “Rhythm of the North” at Pier One Theatre on the Spit.

Bushell, a classically trained musician who attended the Berklee College of Music in the late 1970s, describes the show as a celebration of wildlife and wild living.

Bushell has performed and composed music in all 50 states and parts of Canada. In 1979, he performed at the White House, right before he moved to Alaska in 1980. Bushell first started performing “Rhythm of the North” 12 years ago, hoping to educate and entertain cruise ship passengers and locals alike with his stories from the wilder corners of the state. With the first show at Alice’s Champagne Palace in Homer, Bushell has since taken the show on cruiseships, performed it at various other venues in the Homer area — including a full house performance earlier this year at the newly renovated Porcupine Theater — and now plans to bring it back to the Pier One stage, where the show ran for several summers before COVID stymied public gatherings.

The stories and songs included in the show are all inspired by Alaska’s natural history or natural characters. Bushell said one story he shares is called “Border Story,” an account of a time spent bush clearing 50 miles of the highway along the Alaska-Canadian border. Another “Blubber Blues” is described as “his walrus story.”

For those who may have already seen “Rhythm of the North” in former years, Bushell said there are new additions this summer, including a video he edited from a local performance from April that he helped contribute original music to. Over 200 children enrolled in the local strings program participated in the Homer OPUS “Sea of Strings” performance on April 10, along with adult performers from around the community. Bushell’s song “Swift Current Swimmers” was one of the songs they performed collectively. He said the song represents the life cycle of salmon.

Through utilizing video captured from the April performance by Bjorn Olson and Kim McNett, clips of Alaska’s wilder natural corners from cinematographer Daniel Zatz, and photographs from Christopher Kincaid, Bushell created a music video to accompany the audio recording from the show.

Bushell said he enjoyed illustrating the juxtaposition between the young performers and the young salmon in the short film, which he says exemplifies the “growth of kids learning musical instruments.” The video will be shown during the performance on Saturday and can be found online at alaskajohnnyb.com.

Johnny B’s “Rhythm of the North” will be performed for the last time this season on Saturday, July 5, at Pier One Theatre on the Homer Spit at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at pieronetheatre.org, at the Pier One Theatre office at 332 E. Pioneer Avenue, #3 (above the Homer Bookstore), or at the door.