Johnny & The MoTones

Johnny & The MoTones
Johnny & The MoTones in 2011
Background information
Origin	Mosinee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Genres	Blues, Soul, Jazz
Years active	2004 – present
Labels	Altenburgh Records, The Orchard/Sony Entertainment
Associated acts	John Altenburgh
Website	altenburgh.com
Members	John Altenburgh, Mitch Viegut, Chris O'Keefe, Ryan Korb, Bruce Lammers, Paula Hall, Bob Kase, John Greiner
Past members	David Hood, Mike Dillon, Keras Rubka Nimz, Mark Mattioli, Otis McLennon, James Lott, Kevin Moore, Ellen Altenburgh, Dave Baehr

Johnny & The MoTones are a Wisconsin based blues group led by musician, John Altenburgh and licensed through Altenburgh Records and distributed by The Orchard /Sony Music Entertainment. Notable musicians to have recorded with Johnny & The MoTones include; John Altenburgh, former Curb Records recording artist Mitch Viegut, Chris O'Keefe, Ryan Korb, Bruce Lammers, Paula Hall, Otis McLennon, John Greiner, David Hood, James Lott, Mark Mattioli, Keras Rubka Nimz, Kevin Moore and Mike Dillon, current member of the Decoys and past member of The Dickey Betts Band

The group was created in 2004 after jazz recording artist, John Altenburgh "Johnny" received an offer from Sun Studio, (Memphis, Tennessee) President, John Schorr to record for free after Altenburgh loaned antique recording equipment for display in the Sun Studio Museum. Altenburgh could not resist the idea of recording at the birthplace of Rock & Roll, so he decided to do a roots blues type of project. The result was the album, Two Hits For The Kitty, (The Sun Studio Sessions)

Two Hits For The Kitty spent 18 weeks in the Roots Music Report & Cashbox (magazine) Blues Charts in 2005. The album was recorded in three hours as the group did a roots "Live in the Studio" recording just like a classic session from the 1950s. Altenburgh even played Jerry Lee Lewis's piano for part of the session. Jazz Review commented "(Two Hits For The Kitty) has all the energy you’d expect from a group playing in the hall of kings." Wisconsin Public Radio's, Glen Moberg called it the "Ultimate Road Trip" as the group appeared on his show, Route 51.

The Ultimate Road Trip continued as the group followed up that release with Get Gone (The Muscle Shoals Sessions) as the group traveled to another legendary recording studio, Rick Hall's Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Recorded with legendary sideman David Hood on bass. This time the group took seven hours to record their second "live in studio" album. Get Gone spent 17 weeks on the Roots Music Report,Cashbox (magazine) and Living Blues Blues Charts in 2007. The group's goal was to capture that Rick Hall Muscle Shoals Sound. The group spent time with the legendary producer before the session to get a feel for how they would accomplish their task, it worked! Living Blues Magazine said; "This is swamp-rockin' Memphis soul, slightly updated but with a reverence for the old-fashioned blues-rock sound, with nasty guitars, gritty vocals, sassy original songs, and a borrowed rhythm section of David Hood and Mike Dillon Curington (from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section)."Wisconsin Public Radio said; "They took another road-trip and hit gold for the second time." "Get Gone" was engineered by Jimmy Nutt, whose credits include; Jimmy Buffett and The Drive By Truckers.