Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is a guitarist and recording artist from Austin, Texas. Best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, New Age, and country and western elements into his recordings.

Guitar Player magazine calls Johnson "One of the most respected guitarists on the planet." Johnson composes and plays not just instrumental songs, but also sings and plays piano.

Widely recognized for his guitar skills, Johnson’s stylistic diversity and technical proficiency have drawn praise from Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Allan Holdsworth, Larry Carlton, Steve Morse, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, Jeff Baxter, Prince, B. B. King, Rusty Burns, Joe Satriani and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. His critically-acclaimed, platinum selling 1990 recording Ah Via Musicom produced the single "Cliffs of Dover," for which Johnson won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Eric Johnson is best known for playing stock Fender Stratocaster and Gibson ES-335 electric guitars through a triple amp setup that consists of Fender Amplifiers, Dumble Amplifiers, and Marshall amplification. The Dumble amp has not made an appearance on his live performances for sometime since and including his best known live DVD at the Austin City Limits. Eric uses effects pedals such as a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, Butler Tube Driver, TC Electronic Stereo Chorus, Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah, Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Delay, an MXR Digital Delay, a Line 6 Echo Pro Studio Modeler, and a Maestro Echoplex tape delay of which all are connected to multiple A/B boxes to create sounds and tones that are both clean and distorted; Although the majority of Eric’s setup is predominantly vintage, he has recently started using more modern effects including a stereo chorus made by Analog.Man and a JTM45 vintage handwired re-issue from Marshall.

Eric Johnson occasionally substitutes his pedals for others, sometimes being spotted with a TubeWorks Tube Driver rather than a Butler one. He has also been seen using the Xotic AC Booster as well as a Boss DS-1.

Eric Johnson was also responsible for putting the Tube Driver pedal created by Brent Butler on the map which is an essential part of his guitar sound.

Johnson has also played other guitar brands such as Robin, Rickenbacker, and Jackson Charvel, which appears on the cover of the Ah Via Musicom album.

He has also been known to use series wired or ‘coil tapped’ Dimarzio HS-2’s in the neck and bridge position of his stratocasters; although this setup is not hum-cancelling, it still cancels around 70% of the AC hum.

C. F. Martin & Company released a limited-edition signature Eric Johnson Signature MC-40 in 2003, built to his specifications. Johnson donated five percent of the profits from his signature Martin guitar to Jefferson Medical College as a tribute to his father who attended.

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation released an Eric Johnson Signature Fender Stratocaster in 2005 also built to his specifications. Johnson has also released other signature gear such as GHS Eric Johnson Nickel Rockers Electric Guitar Strings, DiMarzio DP211 Eric Johnson Signature Custom Pickups, and a Fullton-Webb amplifier. Jim Dunlop also has released an Eric Johnson signature Jazz III plectrum.

In late 2006, Johnson switched from recording in analog format to digital format.

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has recently released the Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster Rosewood model. This signature Fender Stratocaster guitar features the same specifications as the Eric Johnson Maple Neck Strat, except for the addition of a 3-ply mint pickguard, hotter treble pickup and a bound rosewood fingerboard with clay dot position markers.

Heri Joensen (born February 21, 1973 in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands to the parents Joen Anker Bruun Joensen and Anna Johild Joensen, is the vocalist and guitarist for the Faroese viking metal band Týr.

Týr’s guitar section is composed of Heri Joensen along with Terji Skibenæs, the other members are Gunnar Thomsen and Kári Streymoy. Heri Joensen is also Týr’s main composer and lyricist, often using material from Faroese ballads in his native language.

At the age of fourteen, Heri Joensen saw a guitar in a shop window in Tórshavn. A few weeks later he bought it, and with it an amplifier. Both were of very low quality, and his only former experience with musical instruments was the obligatory flute classes at school. To this day he does not understand how his parents and brothers could stand the noise.

Heri Joensen’s first band was called Cruiser, in which Gunnar H. Thomsen, also played. Cruiser played two gigs, had some change of line-up, and continued, with some success, as Wolfgang. Here Heri Joensen and Gunnar Thomsen got to meet Kári Streymoy. Wolfgang went on as a rock entertainment band and could be seen touring the Faroes as late as the summer of 2000.

In the fall of 1997 Heri Joensen moved to Denmark to study music. One evening in January 1998 Heri Joensen met his old bandmate Kári Streymoy at a ball in central Copenhagen, and the rest is history. Heri Joensen finished his musical studies at D.A.R.K. Copenhagen in January, 2003, majoring in Guitar and Music Theory.

Heri Joensen lives today in Runavík, Faroe Islands, where he is married and has a little son, called Tórur. He has worked as a guitar teacher for some periods, but is now exclusively working as a professional musician. He speaks Faroese, Icelandic, English, Danish, Norwegian and some German.

Alain Johannes (born 1962 in Chile) is a guitarist and, along with his partner Natasha Shneider and drummer Jack Irons, a founding member of the band Eleven. As well as his work with Eleven, he has also collaborated with many other bands and artists, both as a musician and as a producer.

Johannes is the owner of the first Motor Ave BelaAire semihollow guitar which he spotted half way finished when he picked up a vintage Maton guitar which was being repaired by Motor Ave. The BelAire can be seen used in the Over the Years and Through the Woods DVD where Johannes was seen charing the responsibilities with Troy Van Leeuwen and using Troy’s Custom Yamaha SA-bass. Johannes is currently endorsed by Line 6 Amplifiers, and is listed as a user of their Flextone series of amps.

As a teenager Johannes formed the band Anthym with Jack Irons, Michael Balzary and Hillel Slovak; this band was later renamed What Is This? In 1987, Johannes and Shneider released the album Walk the Moon under the MCA label.

Eleven was formed in 1990 and released their debut album Awake in a Dream in 1991, which included the pop based singles "Rainbows End" and "All Together". They followed this with regular releases Eleven in 1993, Thunk! in 1995, Avantgardedog in 2000, and Howling Book in 2003.

Johannes was the only other contributor on the 1996 debut album by Jason Falkner, Jason Falkner Presents Author Unknown. He was also a significant contributor to Chris Cornell’s 1999 solo album, Euphoria Morning, both as a guitarist and producer. He also toured as part of Chris Cornell’s band in support of this album. He mixed and played in Jack Irons’ first solo record, Attention Dimension, released in 2004, and he co-wrote on Danish stonerrock outfit The Royal Highness.

In 2005, he joined Queens of the Stone Age to play guitar as well as bass on Lullabies to Paralyze. He had previously guested on Lullabies’ predecessor, Songs for the Deaf, having also co-written the track "Hanging Tree" during one of The Desert Sessions. He would participate in the tour for the album and appears on the live DVD, Over the Years and Through the Woods in the main concert. Johannes once again contributed a main role to Lullabies’ follow up, Era Vulgaris, but he opted to concentrate on Eleven with Natasha and the pair bowed out of touring before the album’s promotion started.

He is currently a member of Brody Dalle’s post-Distillers effort, Spinnerette. He also recently did mixing on "Gypsy Woman" from Hilary Duff’s new album Dignity.

Daniel Paul Johns (born 22 April 1979) is an Australian vocalist, composer, guitarist, and pianist, best known as frontman of the rock band Silverchair. He is also part of The Dissociatives. In 2007, he was ranked at number 18 on Rolling Stone’s list of The Twenty-Five Most Underrated Guitarists.

Over the years, Daniel Johns has gone through many changes in his equipment. He owns a diverse range of guitars, and each guitar he uses live is in a unique tuning for different songs.

Currently on tour, Johns is using a black ‘72 Fender Telecaster Deluxe for all songs in standard tuning, such as "Young Modern Station" and "Ana’s Song", a yellow ‘72 Fender Telecaster Deluxe for all songs in standard which require a capo, such as "Those Thieving Birds/Strange Behaviour" and "If You Keep Losing Sleep", a green Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 in dropped-D tuning for "The Door", a Paul Reed Smith Standard McCarty in dropped-B tuning for "the Lever" and "One Way Mule", a black Gibson Les Paul Custom in Open C# tuning for "Emotion Sickness", "Without You", "Israel’s Son" and "Freak", a Rickenbacker 330/12 semi-hollow 12-string in standard tuning for "The Greatest View" and a Maton EM325C semi-acoustic with a sparkle finish in an unusual tuning of F-C-G-D-G-D, used for the songs "Tuna In The Brine", "Across The Night" and "Luv Your Life". Johns also uses a Gibson SG Heritage tuned half a step down for "Straight Lines".

Johns first used Marshall JCM 900 amplifiers for Frogstomp, but by the time of Freak Show, switched to Soldano Hot Rod heads. Until 2005, Johns was using Marshall cabinets, however, he has changed this setup. He now uses Hiwatt Hi-Gain cabinets with his Soldano amps.

Johns uses a large variety of pedals. His current pedalboard consists of: a Digitech Whammy, a Little Lehle Switcher, Radial Loopbone, 2 Soldano footswitches, BOSS DD-20, BOSS TU-2, Radial Big Shot Mix, BOSS OC-2, Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer and a BOSS GE-7.

Johns once dated singer Fiona Apple. He announced his engagement to long-time girlfriend, actress, singer and model Natalie Imbruglia in late 2002, and they married on New Year’s Eve 2003. However, on 4 January 2008 it was announced they were divorcing, stating, "We have simply grown apart through not being able to spend enough time together."

His profound love for animals motivated his becoming a vegan when he was younger. He is currently a vegetarian.

JerryC (born August 31, 1981), is a Taiwanese guitarist and composer. He is best known for his song "Canon Rock", a rock arrangement of Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D. He began playing the guitar at the age of 17, and the piano before age 15. His style is influenced by classical music, neoclassical guitarists, as well as melodic metal bands such as Helloween and L’Arc-en-Ciel.

His most famous work, "Canon Rock", became an Internet sensation after South Korean guitarist Jeong-Hyun Lim performed a cover version in 2005. The song has garnered much media attention; his rendition has been featured on newspapers, blogs, television shows and radios worldwide. The video can be seen and downloaded on his official website, along with his other musical endeavors.

Chang was featured in the profiles section of the January 2007 issue of Guitar World magazine, along with a tab transcription of "Canon Rock" in the featured songs sections.

At the height of its popularity, "Canon Rock" was one of the top 10 downloaded guitar tabs on the Ultimate Guitar Archive, and currently is one of the most viewed videos on the popular video streaming website YouTube.

Ginjineko of YouTube announced that JerryC will be performing at Imaginat Blow 2009, a Japanese guitar concert. JerryC also performed with the "Japanese Canon Rockers" at YouTube Live TOKYO.

Chang has signed a recording contract with Taiwanese label HIM International Music. Although no official announcement was made by HIM, the company began creating a website for Chang in 2007. In a letter to his listeners several months later, he publicly announced that he has indeed signed a contract and has been working with fellow musician Tank.

Wyclef Jean( born Wyclef Neluset Jean on October 17, 1972) is a multi-platinum Haitian-American musician, actor, producer and former-member of the hip hop trio The Fugees. Wyclef has sold more than 31 million albums throughout his career together with his album sales with The Fugees.

Wyclef is the son of a Nazarene pastor. His younger brother, Samuel Jean, graduated from Eastern Nazarene College before graduating from Boston University School of Law, and has worked to manage and produce some of Wyclef’s work in the music business.

Wyclef moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was nine before they moved again to northern New Jersey. Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, New Jersey and South Orange, New Jersey.

The Fugees signed to Ruffhouse Records, which released the group’s debut album, Blunted on Reality. It sold poorly, but follow-up album The Score sold over 18 million copies worldwide. Jean announced plans to begin a solo career with 1997’s Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars. The album’s guests included Hill and Pras along with Jean’s siblings Melky Sedeck and Farel Sedeck Guerschom Jean, the I Threes, The Neville Brothers and Celia Cruz. The album was a hit, as were two singles: "We Trying to Stay Alive".

The Fugees remained in limbo during this time, with the follow-up to The Score being continually postponed as all three members cultivated solo careers.

At the concert Woodstock 1999, Jean paid homage to 1969 Woodstock performer Jimi Hendrix by setting fire to his guitar after playing "The Star Spangled Banner", and burnt his fingers while doing so.

Jean’s second solo album, released in 2000, was The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book. This was recorded with guests including Youssou N’Dour, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kenny Rogers, The Rock and Mary J. Blige. With Blige he released "911" as a single. He was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Jean’s third album, Masquerade, was released in 2002. His fourth album, The Preacher’s Son, was released in November 2003 as the follow-up to his first solo album, the Carnival

In 2004, he released his fifth album, entitled Sak Pasé Presents: Welcome to Haïti. Most of its songs are in his native language of Haitian Creole. He also covered Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song "Fortunate Son" for the soundtrack of the 2004 film remake of The Manchurian Candidate and wrote the song Million Voices for the film Hotel Rwanda.

Jean also produced and wrote songs for the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme’s 2003 documentary The Agronomist, about the Haitian activist and radio personality Jean Dominique. With Jerry ‘Wonder’ Duplessis, Jean also composed the score of the documentary Ghosts of Cité Soleil, in which he appears onscreen speaking by telephone in 2004 to a "chimere" gang-leader and aspiring rapper, Winston "2Pac" Jean.

During a period between 2004 and 2006 and fueled by a reunion performance in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, it appeared that the Fugees were on track to record a new album, however Fugees member Pras claims to Billboard "To put it nicely, it’s dead."

Jean released an album in September 2007 that he recorded in Atlanta, Georgia with the help of T.I.. Recently, Wyclef released a new song called Sweetest Girl featuring Lil’ Wayne, Niia and Akon, which references the song C.R.E.A.M. by the Wu-Tang Clan. The album also features a single, "Fast Car" whose video was made with the assistance of video game Burnout Paradise.

Herbert Jansch (born 3 November 1943), known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs. He is best known as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist but is also a singer and songwriter.

He has recorded at least 25 albums and has toured extensively starting in the 1960s and continuing into the 21st century. His work has influenced such artists as Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Jimmy Page, Ian Anderson, Nick Drake, Donovan and Neil Young, and earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2001 BBC Folk Awards.

Bert Jansch was born at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow in 1943, but brought up in Edinburgh, where he attended Pennywell Primary School and Ainsley Park Secondary School. As a teenager, he acquired a guitar and started visiting a local folk club run by Roy Guest. There, he met Archie Fisher and Jill Doyle, who introduced him to the music of Big Bill Broonzy, Pete Seeger, Brownie McGhee and Woody Guthrie. He also met and shared a flat with Robin Williamson, with whom he travelled to London in 1963.

After a stint as a nurseryman, Jansch became a full-time musician and spent two years playing one-night stands in British folk clubs. This was a musical apprenticeship which exposed him to a range of influences, including Martin Carthy and Ian Campbell, but especially Anne Briggs, from whom he learnt some of the songs  that would later feature strongly in his recording career.

Between 1963 and 1965, he travelled around Europe and beyond, hitch-hiking from place to place and living on earnings from busking and casual musical performances in bars and cafes. Before leaving Glasgow, he married a 16-year-old girl called Lynda Campbell: a marriage of convenience, which allowed her to travel with him although she was too young to have her own passport. They split up after a few months and Jansch was eventually repatriated to Britain after catching dysentery in Tangiers.

Through the development of Pentangle, Jansch played a number of instruments: banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, recorder and concertina—on rare occasions he has even been known to play electric guitar. However, it is his acoustic guitar playing that sets him apart from other folk musicians.

Jansch’s first instrument was a Zenith which was marketed as the "Lonnie Donegan guitar" and which he played in the folk clubs in the early 1960s. His first album was reputedly recorded using a Martin 002 borrowed from Martin Carthy. Pictures of Jansch in the middle 1960s show him playing a variety of models, including Martin and Epiphone guitars. He had a guitar hand-built by John Bailey, which was used for most of the Pentangle recordings but was eventually stolen. He then had a contract with Yamaha, who provided him with an FG1500 which he is still playing, along with a Yamaha LL11 1970s jumbo guitar. Jansch’s relationship with Yamaha continues and they presented him with an acoustic guitar with gold trim and abalone inlay for his 60th birthday although, valued at about £3000, Jansch is quoted as saying that it is too good for stage use.

Jandek is the musical project of an outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released 55 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical information. Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek’s music is unique, but the lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of East Texas.

Smith has kept his personal history an almost absolute secret, revealing only one story about his pre-Corwood years: he wrote seven novels but burned them upon rejection from New York publishers. Aside from that anecdote, nothing is known about his life. He is rumored to have grown up, or at least spent time in Providence, Rhode Island. It has also been suggested that he is well traveled, as several album sleeves depict locations that have been formally identified as being outside the United States. This, however, presumes that all pictures that do not depict Smith were taken by him.

In his one of just two known interviews, Jandek mentions that he was working at that time as a machinist.

Some of Jandek’s allure stems from his small but devoted fan base that includes Sonic Youth, Bill Callahan, Mike Watt, John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, Low, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam, Bright Eyes and K Records founder Calvin Johnson. In the 1980s and 1990s most fans stumbled into the world of Jandek after hearing his music on college radio or freeform stations like WFMU and WCBN-FM, but as the 21st century approached Jandek was just as likely to catch fans through the internet. An "unofficial Jandek website" was founded by Seth Tisue in 1997. It includes complete descriptions of each album and concert and the archives of the Jandek Discussion List.

Phil Jamieson (born 17 April 1977) is an Australian musician from Wauchope, New South Wales. He attended Wauchope High School.

In early 2005, Phil performed guest vocals on the track "Sayonara" by the Deck Dogz. In 2005 Phil also won best male performer in the Jack Awards and together with Grinspoon won their first ARIA.

On Thursday 23 June 2005, Phil and his wife Julie became the proud parents of a little girl, Lyla.

Also in 2005, Phil was a guest vocalist on part three of supergroup The Wrights’ cover of Stevie Wright’s  classic "Evie". The first part was first performed at the 2004 ARIA awards. The supergroup features members of many other Australian rock bands.

Jamieson brought the sounds of Grinspoon to millions on the world stage in March 2006, playing live at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the closing ceremony of the Melbourne 2006 XVIII Commonwealth Games.

On Saturday 17th of February 2007, almost 8 days after the gig in Port Macquarie, many of the nation’s capital city newspapers carried the story that Jamieson was addicted to the drug crystal methamphetamine and had voluntarily admitted himself to Sydney’s Odyssey House Detoxification Unit. His wife and family had become increasingly concerned about his erratic behavior and those close to him said they could barely recognize him after late nights.

Family, friends, fans and officials in the music industry are said to be very supportive of Phil’s move to rehabilitate himself off the drug. Phil Jamieson is one of the drug’s most high-profile Australian victims.

Phil has recently relocated back to his home town with the support of his family and is said to be recovering very well. His wife Julie also recently gave birth to the couple’s second child, another daughter, Evita.

Atreyu is an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, formed in 1998. The band was originally named "Retribution" but later changed their name to "Atreyu" after the character of the same name from the fantasy book The Neverending Story when they found out that another band from Hemet, California had been using their original name. Formed in 1998, the band have since released four studio albums, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, The Curse, A Death-Grip on Yesterday and Lead Sails Paper Anchor, each of which have sold more than 200,000 copies. In 2008, they were on the Projekt Revolution tour with Linkin Park and headlined the smaller revolution stage along with 10 Years, Hawthorne Heights, and Armor For Sleep.

On April 22, 2008, Lead Sails Paper Anchor was re-released with two previously unreleased bonus tracks, a DVD, and a digital booklet. It also featured new cover art. A trailer was released promoting the CD on their MySpace page.

On May 23, 2008, Varkatzas was forced to drop out of two shows - the shows being May Day in Indianapolis and Balloon Fest in El Paso - due to a throat infection, which resulted in Saller and McKnight taking over vocal duties for both dates.

Apart from being on the US Taste of Chaos they are also headlining the international leg of the tour. Other bands playing are Story of the Year, As I Lay Dying and Mucc. Travis Miguel stated that the band will do "whatever it takes" to get food on the road.

A recent blog by bassist Marc McKnight reported Atreyu will be recording for their next album in early spring 2009.