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Featuring some of the same musical guests on Great Romantics, thematically Isle centers on the longing that results from true faith in God. Johnson weaves images of a Viking ship, the Uffington White Horse, Shakespeare’s Prospero, Milton’s Comus, Tennyson’s poetry with C.S.Lewis’ Pilgrim’s Regress.


Musicians

Jeff Johnson
Keys & vocal

Dave Hagelganz
Saxophone

Sandy Simpson
Guitars

Various musicians
The Isle Of Dreams
Jeff Johnson (ArkMusic/1994) $9.99
Total time: 38:05


An introduction by Jeff Johnson –

In Northern Europe, entire Viking ships have been discovered buried in the ground. I saw one once in Denmark. One needs a ship to get to an island unless he can walk on water like Jesus did.

I've also seen the image of a horse carved out in the chalk-white hills of southern England. For many years that horse has roamed like I imagine the poet, Tennyson once roamed the Isle of Wight.

Like Prospero on his island, I have followed the great conversation in books that I've read and I may be wiser for it. But deep down, my heart still quivers when I walk along the seashore. For the older I get, the more vulnerable I feel towards the crashing waves.

Yet it is only a matter of time until I can go to where my heart longs to go. In my dreams, it is an island that I go to and, by God's grace, I will land there someday.

The resulting sound is inordinately rich, with a three-dimensional feel. Johnson has succeeded again, with one of his best projects since Fallen Splendor or Icons.

– True Tunes (June 1994)