What is it about blues guitar players and their surrounding supernatural-origin myths?

While his might not be as mysterious as Robert Johnson’s tale of selling his soul to the Dark One at the crossroads, Harrisburg-area blues guru Don Johnson has folklore of his own – only his trades the devil for Santa Claus.

“I told my dad I wanted a guitar for my next Christmas – you know, Santa Claus and all,” he recalls during an early November interview.

Did Santa Claus come through? “Yes, he did.”

“As a matter of fact, my mom and dad, they tried to hide it,” he recalls. “They tried to bring this thing into the house. I reached my hand in the closet and I could feel strings under wrapping paper.”

Johnson discovered the guitar just prior to that Christmas, somewhere around the age of 6 or 7, and it immediately drew his attention away from the usual interests of a boy that age. He recalls, “I was watching the Jackson Five, and it kind of intrigued me, what they were doing, even though I was playing with my cars and whatever. From that point on, I been with it ever since.”

The Jackson Five and Santa Claus are decidedly less sinister than a meeting with jolly old Beelzebub, but it was an auspicious beginning nonetheless. Decades later, Johnson is best known as the leader of the aptly named Don Johnson Project, one of Central PA’s premier blues outfits. Johnson and fellow band members LeRoy Flowers (bass/vocals), Doug Hoyle (drums/vocals), Craig Barton (keyboards/vocals) and newest member Trixie Greiner (keys/vocals) share many years of playing between them, and incorporate everything from R&B, jazz and funk into their music. “We got our own little niche and twist to things that we do,” Johnson explains. “We do real-deal music.”

The Project does a real-deal live show as well, from local haunts in PA to as far away as Memphis, TN. “It’s really different, man,” Johnson says, “because we get you motivated. We just make you happy, man. We’re a very danceable band.”

While the group doesn’t perform any contemporary hip-hop or pop songs, Johnson is confident that the repertoire will be familiar and even nostalgic for people of all ages. Who can’t muster some sweet summer nostalgia for Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay,” one of the Don Johnson Project’s most requested covers? Standards like that are essentially part our collective musical DNA, but that can make it even trickier to pull them off. An Otis Redding cover attempted without soul and authenticity can turn “nostalgic” into “nauseating.” The Don Johnson Project are proud of their covers, and they utilize their superior musicianship and pedigree to tackle songs that ought to give some bands pause. In fact, four of the five band members have the rare distinction for regional artists of being full-time musicians.

 Also to credit for DJP’s successful covers is Johnson’s voice, even if according to him his singing is something of an afterthought.

“Everyone says I have an excellent voice, and I’m like, ‘Hmm?’” he says. “I would never classify myself as a vocalist. I’m a guitarist, but …” But he’ll take it.

Johnson is a writer as well, and is excited about an all-original full-length album that the band is beginning work on now. With covers, the band can flex its versatile musical muscle a bit to get the crowd motivated and dancing, but Johnson’s originals remain faithful to blues and R&B. “I try to stick to my roots,” he says simply, citing gospel as the foundation. What connects gospel music and the genres he plays now is the mandate to express, as he puts it, “something that’s real life, man. Something that’s really real.”

Beyond the heavy performance schedule he maintains with the Don Johnson Project, Johnson leads a busy life. He was the lead actor/vocalist in the acclaimed and groundbreaking blues drama stage show The Tear Jar, and performed on the accompanying album. Johnson also plays in the 3D Trio with keyboard and saxophone player Dominic Iacavone and drummer/vocalist Dave Santana. When asked about the difference between the trio and the larger band, Johnson says, “It’s hard to explain, because both groups could do some of the same material, but the musicianship, that’s where it all counts.” He then explains that the trio dips into mellower territory like Jimmy Buffett and Santana songs, but that at the end of the day, “both bands have great musicianship, where we’re capable of doing any genre of music.”

Getting people in a bar dancing is hard enough, but serious fans of the blues are an especially prickly bunch. Bend a note the wrong direction or wear the wrong colored shiny shirt, and they may turn up their noses and dismiss you as inauthentic. Johnson, however, doesn’t seem to be threatened by this potentially critical atmosphere – and he shouldn’t be. He has amassed a respectable list of accomplishments that have afforded him a comfortable degree of respect in the blues community. The Don Johnson Project are two-time winners of the Blues Society of Central Pennsylvania’s competitions for entry into the International Blues Challenges in Memphis. That honor sent them on trips to Memphis in 2008 and 2009 to perform and compete against great blues musicians from all over the world.

“That was a great experience,” Johnson reflects, “and that really stands out because we met a lot of different musicians from all over the world; you know, French blues bands! It was really great.”

When not traveling several states to rub elbows with fellow blues greats, Johnson has one singular goal – to provide a moving and meaningful soundtrack to life in Central PA.

“I keep everybody dancing,” he says succinctly. “If you want to dance, the Don Johnson band is the band to see, ’cause I’m-a get you dancing, get you moving.”