Track listing: Greatest Abandon, Anything, Strange Fire, It Takes Imagination to Survive, Runaway Love, Only Now, In the Meantime, Backwater Blues, Soldier of Reverie, Falling, Are You Coming Through, Pretty Little Heart
Chicago-based singer/songwriter and self-described "seeker and dreamer" Chrissy Johnson will release her sophomore album Shake Where You're Steady on July 18, 2025. Produced by lauded longtime Chicago songwriter Steve Dawson, the 12-track record deals primarily with the loss and emotional impact of Johnson's father leaving the family during her adolescence. While emotionally heavy with regard to its lyrics, the songwriting and execution trend more toward recovery, regrouping, and optimism toward overcoming difficult experiences.
Johnson, thematically speaking, thrives on connection. She's always written but only more recently put her words to music and sought out how songwriting might connect with, relate to, or positive affect her listeners.
The feel of Shake Where You're Steady embodies similar energies to Sheryl Crow's debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, in that Johnson's music like Crow's recording of Music Club seemed to happen almost happenstance. Not that either didn't require work and dedication--but just as Crow didn't start her Tuesday night jam sessions with a clear path laid out to write a Grammy-winning album, it was Johnson's writing that opened the door for her to try out learning guitar and morphing her words into lyrics and setting them against her chord progressions.
That led to her debut album Arms of July which, while a solid album on its own, sounds like a debut. With Shake Where You're Steady, however, there's a clear growth and maturity to her sound. The album is 'bigger'. You can hear a confidence in the writing, recording, and performance that is head and shoulders above her initial foray into recording. A prime example of this artistic development is the ambitious old school RnB-inspired "Anything," in which Johnson enlisted saxophonist/composer Chris Greene to chart a tasty horn arrangement.
Shake Where You're Steady is an enjoyable listen. Chrissy's songwriting is straight-forward, accessible, relatable; her lyrics touching and powerful but also embodying emotions and messages felt by all of us. Give her socials and streaming profiles a Like/Follow so you're reminded on the day the new record drops. Find Chrissy Johnson online at, you guessed it, chrissyjohnson.com.