MUSIC | SUNDAY, APRIL 12 | 2:30 PM | PAY WHAT YOU WISH
Jack County Line presents “Songwriter Sundays”: A Residency
Join us for monthly performances of the original songs of New Mexico based Jack County Line. Michael Allison, JD Johnston, and Norm Toy explore love, joy, and heartbreak set against the horizons of the American southwest. This new series launches on Sunday, April 12, at 2:30 PM.
Jack County Line, formed in 2023, is a collaboration among singer-songwriters Michael Allison and JD Johnston and multi-instrumentalist, studio engineer, and producer Norm Toy. The group focuses on original songs that blend Americana, progressive country and contemporary folk and rock. From the joyful “Arc of a Rainbow” to the desolate and thought-provoking “Bosque Redondo,” as well as many others, JCL explores beauty, heartbreak, and the emotional landscapes of the American southwest.
While Allison, Johnston and Toy come from very different personal and creative backgrounds, each believes in the sharing of common human experience through the poetry of song. We portray the world as we have seen and felt it, the joyful and the sad, the good and the bad.
JCL has two releases to date, “Jack County Lines” and “100 Miles from Somewhere,” both of which are available on all major streaming platforms and as downloads from their website.
The group continues to write, play, and record and will perform monthly live versions of many of their songs starting on April 12, 2026, at FUSION. Tickets are available on a Pay What You Wish basis.
Please join us!
FUTURE DATES:
April 12 | May 10 | June 21 | July 12 | August 9 | September 27
Quality bar service will be provided by Safe House Distilling Co. and Teller Genuine Vodka.
MEET THE SONGWRITERS
Michael Allison, born in Texas but living and working as a lawyer in New Mexico since 1981, has been devoted to the art of the singer-songwriter since attending college in Austin, Texas during the seventies. A middling guitarist for most of his life, he began writing his own songs in 2020, and formed “Jack County Line” with JD Johnston in 2023.
JD Johnston, aka “John Dennis Johnston”, originally from small town Nebraska, has had a long and successful career as an actor, having appeared in numerous national movies and television shows, and has also been active in theater. JD has been a writer and, over the years, has penned plays, screenplays and poetry. After being declared legally blind in 2005, JD became fascinated with the lives and the art of singer-songwriters and began a theater project about a musician battling to recover his music and his life, “The Rehearsal”, which was performed in 2022. He wrote or co-wrote ten songs for the play, and in the process fell in love with songwriting. He continued to develop his songwriting, vocal and guitar skills, and in 2023 teamed up with fellow songwriter Michael Allison to form “Jack County Line”.
Norm Toy is a multi-instrumentalist and brings a deep, technical understanding of music to Jack County Line. An experienced producer and recordist at his Red Barn Studios, he is a creative force in interpreting and adding gravitas to the band’s original lyrics and melodies. In addition to electric and acoustic guitar, Norm plays beautiful bass, mandolin, keyboards, percussion and lap steel, and often helps with vocal harmonies. In his long career, he has been a member of, and recorded with, a number of bands in a variety of genres. Norm has also been active in sound design and musical composition for the University of New Mexico Modern Dance and Theater departments, has produced soundtracks for the New Mexico Festival Ballet, and has also provided post- production audio, Foley and ADR for numerous film projects.