Get to Know: Tiffany Johnson
Four years ago, Tiffany Johnson left Rapid City for Nashville to write songs. This week, she returns to the Black Hills for six performances over the Fourth of July holiday, including full-band shows at The Custer Beacon, Spearfish Friday Nights and Rapid City’s America 250 celebration at Main Street Square.
Music was already part of the Johnson household. Her dad, Ross Johnson, played with The Lonely Rangers, and after Tiffany received her first guitar for her eighth birthday, he taught her the first chords. Guitar teacher Dave Kramer handed her chord progressions and expected her to come back with original songs instead of scales. Musician Lane Putnam helped her understand how songs were built, teaching structure and songwriting at an age when most kids were still learning covers.
Johnson became a regular at the Dahl Arts Center’s open mics, where she played original songs and challenged herself to bring something new nearly every month.
“I think I couldn’t live without writing songs,” Johnson told me. “I always say I’m a songwriter.”
At seven years old, Johnson attended the Wild West Songwriters Festival in Deadwood carrying a homemade demo CD. She remembers thinking her dad had to be exaggerating when he said Nashville publishers would be there.
“I was like, ‘They wouldn’t come here,’” she said, laughing. “‘These are fake people.’”
The publishers were real, and Johnson kept coming back. Over the next several years, the Wild West Songwriters Festival became a bridge between Rapid City and Nashville, leading to songwriting camps, industry connections and regular trips to Tennessee.
Johnson has spent the last four years doing exactly what she moved to Nashville to do: writing songs. She estimates she writes around 200 every year.In four years she’s become a two-time semifinalist in the American Songwriter Magazine Song Contest, earned multiple “One to Watch” selections from the Nashville Songwriters Association International,
on Spotify editorial playlists and watched Nashville artist Ben Goldsmith record her song “I Miss New York City” for his major-label debut.
When the conversation turns to songwriting, Johnson doesn’t talk about hooks, radio singles or streaming numbers.
“I write about things that I don’t know how to say any other way,” she said. “It’s how I understand my own feelings.”
Johnson describes Temptress as a diary. Looking back, she realized the songs had quietly become chronological, following relationships, self-doubt and the search for her own identity.
Johnson is especially looking forward to the week’s three full-band shows at The Custer Beacon, Spearfish Friday Nights and Rapid City’s Real America Birthday Bash. Joining her are drummer Caleb Pierce, bassist Caleb Spears and guitarist Julian Melton, all of whom will be seeing the Black Hills for the first time
Johnson already has their itinerary mapped out. Between shows, she plans to introduce them to Sylvan Lake, Dinosaur Park, Armadillos ice cream and a few of her favorite places around the Hills.
“I brag about it all the time,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Guys, it’s so beautiful there. We’re going to go to the lake. We’re going to go on hikes. You guys are going to have the best time.’”
For local audiences, it’s a chance to catch an artist who started writing songs in Rapid City, sharpened her craft in Nashville and is coming home with a band, a new album and a few years’ worth of stories to tell.
* Language warning: This video contains explicit language.
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