Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes
New Orleans, LA

"Johnny Sketch and The Dirty Notes are one of New Orleans best kept secrets - maybe. .....Pain, Pleasure, Fear and Opera (Noiselab) is their third album. But the bands Jazz Fest set was a revelation to me: jamband bonhomie and Louisiana stroll spiced with klezmer style violin and funeral-parade horns... Pain is more of that punch: what you you'd get if Phish had been born at Tipitina's and studied under George Clinton and Frank Zappa late night on the levee."
Rolling Stone Magazine -- David Fricke

Formed in 2001, the legend of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes is a noble tale of friends, funk and fortitude. It is the coagulation of classically trained musicians breaking the confines of the genre in a most likely musical haven; New Orleans. Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes has been known to boldly impress their audiences with more than music, which sometimes involves the removal of clothes, bizarre costumes and the coercion of certain audience members to partake in odd antics. The band is a collection of carefully crafted alter egos, mystical musicians hesitant to share their personal selves but collectively ready to funk beyond the call of duty. Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes is a collective, an ensemble, a five person phone booth in which mild mannered classical guy Clark Kent goes in and Johnny The Wild Superman comes out. And come to think of it, that also involves costumes and the dumping of garments.

It was the 2005 Hurricane Katrina baptism that solidified the wild alter egos in Johnny Sketch and The Dirty Notes into a seriously cohesive unit of musicians. Sketch redefined the word dedicated when the mega hurricane caught the group in mid tour in Colorado during the fateful August of 2005. Johnny Sketch could not get back to New Orleans and continued the tour unswervingly, serving up New Orleans funk stew to anyone who would listen. And listen they did and responded with free housing, bumped up guarantees and purchases of merchandise over and beyond the band's expectations. Finally arriving home Johnny Sketch was met with an onslaught of simple survival and one huge objective; to not only manage each day with limited resources, but to keep the band together, rehearsed and on the road. Not easy when lost of residencies and loss of possessions and even dissolved relationships were eating at the mental wheels of forward momentum. But the Sketchy crew not only survived the upheaval around them, but also developed a new more focused view of themselves and the music they play.

With the release of a new cd expected in early 2008 and another full-fledged national tour beginning in January 08, Johnny Sketch again is on the cusp of a busy and productive year. "We had a few goals after Katrina," explains Johnny Sketch himself, "Let's start working on new material. Let's keep this band together. We intend to make this a career. There's nothing bigger or more fun or more gratifying than all of us playing music all together." To that testament, JSDN tours the US regularly and intends to leave no stone unturned!

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