Kjband’s eleventh album is called Portraits. Lyrically, it is the follow up to the 6th album, Real Life, finished in 2014. The song, Our 
Art, from that album, was written about Carolyn and my artistic drive to create, and had a lyric – ‘Together we paint portraits/ Of this real life that we frame’. This lyric was an inspiration, and we decided that our next record would be called Portraits. It took 5 years for Carolyn and myself to complete the writing of these portraits, most of which turned out to be about loved ones and family members.
Four of the earlier songs written were recorded for the kjband – Live album in 2017 (Bitter Pill, The Phoenix, Man of Few Words, Evergreen Girl) but the versions on this studio album are the definitive versions. Full horn section arrangements grace Bitter Pill and Evergreen Girl, and The Phoenix and Man of Few Words have the brilliant Marco Vitale on violin.
This album features a new lead singer, Peter McCulloch. His powerful and soulful vocals really bring a new dynamic and excitement to kjband’s music.
The sequencing of these family portraits is notable. Starting with song number 8, there is a Carolyn lyric about her mother (Invisible), then a Ken lyric about his mother (Mother), a Carolyn lyric about her father (The Phoenix), a Ken lyric about his father (Man of Few Words), then the album finishes with Ken’s song written about Carolyn as a gift for a big birthday (Evergreen Girl), and Ken’s self-portrait (Rock Star).
Recording of this album started in early 2019 and was finished late in 2020, despite the pandemic!. It is available on ITunes, Amazon.com, Spotify, and the major streaming services.
Songs on Album
(click to read lyrics)
Bitter Pill
Ken Johnston
When I moved away
Wasn’t thinking of forever
I just moved away
Thought my life would be better
And I like it here
The climate suits me
I made a life out here
Am raising a family
I keep in touch back home
The best that I can
But that’s not my home
Home is here where I am
Can’t help looking back
At what might have happened
There’s no point looking back
It doesn’t matter
Regret is a bitter pill
Better not to swallow
Eyes ahead, set your sights
Look to tomorrow
The World Is My Oyster
Johnston/Moses
Standing at the precipice, the world’s the oyster to me
With character that’ll carry me, already in its place
My life’s trajectory writes the story on its own
The plotting’s all promise, the future’s so bright,
So many roads to go down, be whoever I decide
So simple to craft a future, the way I feel serves me best
What an awesome feeling to be starting so new
With everything out there available to you
I see you as The Pearl, any parent would
The sense of time ticking, my double-edged sword
Want to see all that’s coming, almost see now how you’ll turn out
My greatest fear is that as you age, I will, too
So getting you to Point B means that I might not
Will this be the shoe fated to drop on my perfect little life?
What a strange feeling to be stuck in mid flow
Half already gone and not enough left to go
Remember your grip on my palm with room to spare
Fingers threaded through mine at sleepy story time
Waving through the bus window, head barely in sight
Stretched without meeting around the small of my back
Want to see them on the wheel at 10 and 2, the first time
Raised in triumph up near your mortar board
Holding mine on the dance floor, with you in a tux
Stretched around my shoulder when times turn tough
What a bittersweet feeling, it may never be
Time, be kind, your world’s the pearl I want to see
Life Is Good
Ken Johnston
Where did the time go?
How do we measure it?
If it’s only a number
How can we feel the weight?
Another line on your face
Grey hairs on your head
No use denying
More behind us than what’s ahead, but
Life is good, we’re so lucky
Life is good, how it was meant to be
We work hard, we earn our luck
Together, we can do anything
And there’s so much to do, so many sights to see
So many sunsets, so much beauty
Life is good, we’re so lucky
Life is good, how it was meant to be
There’s wisdom with age, grace comes with the years
An appreciation of all that’s here
So try not to worry, don’t let it weigh you down
Enjoy every minute, calm your fear, ‘cause
Life is good, we’re so lucky
Life is good, how it was meant to be
One Hundred and Eighty Degrees
Johnston/Moses
If things had stopped for me
When they did for you
This real life that I live
Would be the one I never knew
While you breathed your last
I breathed in my midlife’s birth
Circumstantial reincarnation
Right down here on earth
There but for the grace (Of if only)
There but for the grace (Of if only)
We were just getting started
Though you knew you wouldn’t stay
So we shared a slivered moment
Then continued past, on our way
There but for the grace …
I got this
And you got that
Who’s to say
What’s fair or not
It’s how it was
It’s how it is
But you will not be forgot
Born to bloom late
Born to be a fast-fade flower
The length of days is up to fate
The time we get’s not in our power
There but for the grace …
The Abyss
Ken Johnston
Another day, week, month… time flies fast
One day closer to your last
Plenty of time still left to go
At least I hope, I hope so
Everyone’s staring at the abyss
But we don’t know when we’re gonna get there
Everyone’s staring at the abyss…
In the pursuit of happiness
You give all that you can give
It’s the journey not the goal
It’s in the moments that you live
Everyone’s staring at the abyss…
But we don’t know when we’re gonna get there
Everyone’s staring at the abyss…
Taking stock, my bucket list
It ain’t too long
I found it
It’s in my song
I know I’m staring at the abyss
On this side I love the view
I know I’m staring at the abyss…
A Wish Come True
Johnston/Moses
She keeps wishin’ on her candles for the life that never comes
Praying to her god above to send a love her way
She looks good on paper and it rings as true in life
So where is the prince to take her for his wife?
He keeps wishin’ with the penny in the fountain for his dream
Hoping that with faith this time he’ll get it right for good
She’s everything he wants and more but she’s not within sight
When will divergent paths be brought to light?
Just takes a shift of fate to make it all come true
One last wish on the first star to bring your love to you
Don’t give up the hope that fuels the life you dream to come true
One last wish on the first star will bring your love to you
The wishbone tells two stories but the thumbprints join their course
A lucky break ends the searching that’s proved an endless force
Neither one may know it yet but something big’s about to come
When all the wishes that they’ve wished for end in one
Just takes a shift of fate to make it all come true
One last wish on the first star to bring your love to you
Don’t give up the hope that fuels the life you dream to come true
One last wish on the first star will bring your love to you
In Your Place
Johnston/Moses
You are younger
Not born before
For once I didn’t get the say
You jumped the line
To travel down the road
To blaze the path in your own way
No one wants to go there
But it’s not for us to choose
It burns when you lack power to change course
Why couldn’t I be
The one to lead the way
Knowing you can’t place swap makes it worse
Strength to give, strength to receive
That’s the seesaw of the cure
Both strike a balance to get through the day-to-day
The faint of hearts’ not who it’s for
Every test endured
Took a year from our lives too
Never feared results so much before
Needles at the drip’s end
Or paired with pins upon your seat
Both ways pierce straight down to the core
At the scalpel’s mercy
Cold sweats in the night
Deals with the devil, you’d beg to make
Fearing the worst
But hoping for the best
With the one thing you love most at stake
Strength to give, strength to receive
It’s the only thing that gets you through
Knowing that your chances are all left up to chance
Makes it as hard on us as it’s on you
One more day
One less gown
One more pass
One less round
One more handhold
One less pill
One more heartbeat
One less ill
Sometime in the future
My day is bound to come
And you’ll be there to be the me
You’ll make it easier
Because you went before
And showed me exactly how to be
Strength to give, strength to receive
Hope I find the wisdom when I take your place
Digging deep for courage to cross the finish line
Matching your followed footsteps with your grace
Invisible
Johnston/Moses
She sits in the thick of it
Chatter all around
She’s still trending relevant
Just can’t catch the sound
She’s graying at the crown
She’s a hipster at heart
A pop-culture princess
With young spirit that’s sharp
She’s four score plus two
Quite present and aware
But she thinks herself invisible
As they talk like she’s not there
She’s got lots to say
Nowhere near obsolete
But when she tries to get the thoughts out
They talk louder to compete
It’s a young person’s game
Without shame they take the floor
Confident they’ve got the answers
They never look to her for more
She’s two score plus twelve
With worlds of insight to share
But she thinks herself invisible
As they talk like she’s nowhere
We may not hear like we used to
We may look over the hill
We may have trouble walking
Our vision may be nill
But our years give us wisdom
You’d be wise to recognize
We’re not meant to be invisible
So open your eyes
Mother
Ken Johnston
Raised by Grandma and Grandpa
Had a mother she seldom saw
No matter the times don’t you think
A mother would want to raise her own child
When Grandma and Grandpa got too old
Her aunt and uncle took her in
Her cousins they became her brothers
Her brothers they became
Her aunt, like a mother to her
In a family filled with love
Life’s lessons she learned
Just not taught by mother dear
Her own family she got to raise
A wrong, she got to right
And show the world did she
How wonderful a mother could be
The Phoenix
Johnston/Moses
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
History destroyed in a flash, so unjust
Those colored by bottles and fingertips sweeping 
All gone in an instant by flames that kept leaping
Phoenix arise
From pen, not brush
Inspired by what’s buried
Beneath earth’s crust
Yet if the flare of your youth had taken you then
This great body of work would never have been
But it did so exist, we’re all here to bear witness
Through photos and stories that can’t be extinguished
Phoenix arise
From the tip of my pen
With heart to spark embers
Anew…and again
Since when does fire erase waves from the sea?
Why does this loss burn as searingly?
How does a body long gone leave a soul far behind?
Who’ll live to recount what’s no more, through time?
Man of Few Words
Ken Johnston
What do you say to a man of few words
When your words also are few?
It’s OK to let others talk
Words don’t always have to be said
Action speaks loudest so I do what I can
Whatever I can do to help
To honor the man of few words
‘Life is good’ we say when the words come
We take it day by day
Live and love, cherish this gift
As long as we can
Action speaks loudest so I do what I can
Whatever I can do to help
To honor the man of few words
Right to the end, kept close to the vest
The words he wanted to say
But never you mind, I already know
And I always did
Action speaks loudest so I do what I can
Whatever I can do to help
To honor the man of few words
Evergreen Girl
Ken Johnston
Born of the salt of the earth
The middle of three
Quietly inspired every day
She was born to be
A true blue friend, devoted
Daughter, sister, mother, wife
Solid, steady, tireless
The love of my life
She was born, born to be
To be the one for me
Loving, kind, considerate
Always classy
A matriarch in training
She was born to be
She was born, born to be
To be the one for me
My evergreen girl …
Almost perfect, the blemish
It drives her mad
Makes her strive to be the best
The best she can be
She was born, born to be
To be the one for me
My evergreen girl …
Rock Star
Ken Johnston 
Who is he?
He’s that hothead guy at work
Losing his shit once again
Railing against the stupidity
That reigns eight hours a day
Who is he?
The third of four, the only boy
Born to a left brain blueblood and a heart of gold
A devoted father of four, one a girl
His loving wife’s loving husband
He’s all of this and more
But what defines him at the core
What he lives for
He’s an artist…
Who is he?
Shunning the spotlight, keeping to himself
Is not a recipe for success
And so he makes his art quietly
And builds a body of work 
He’s all of this and more
But what defines him at the core
What he lives for
He’s an artist…
He’s a rock star!
Though others may disagree
He’s a rock star
Can’t you see?
