20 Years on the 'Front Lines of Joy' - The Source

In 2005, when musician, promoter and then-agent Gabe Johnson moved to Bend, our city, now nearing 110,000 people, was a town of around 67,000. As the population began to explode and the building cranes began to hover in the sky, Johnson also found a music scene in need of a lift.

Johnson is a lifelong musician who founded an agency representing musicians, In the Pocket Artists, in 2005. Not long after his arrival in Bend, McMenamins, a growing brand which had opened its Bend location, Old St. Francis School, in 2004, asked Johnson for help promoting its nascent shows. Amid the ups and downs of the music industry and the rapid rise of Bend as a booming outdoors mecca, the rest, as they say, is history.

This year, Johnson and his company, Parallel 44 Presents, celebrate 20 years in Central Oregon, along with the milestone 1,500^th show with his longtime band, Watkins Glen, set for Nov. 7 at Volcanic Theatre Pub.

“I think I’m most proud of my legacy as a musician, but when you’re feeding a family and you’re of service and useful, people ask you to help in all kinds of other ways,” Johnson recalled of his early days juggling the agency, musicianship and then, increasingly, booking local shows.

Johnson kept on the busy track of booking, promoting, playing, touring and representing artists for a number of years — all activities that circled around the music industry, if not exactly living inside its best parts. After a health scare, Johnson decided to stop booking tours and representing artists.

His mantra was thus: “From now on, I’m gonna be on the ‘front lines of joy,’ meaning I’m either playing music, I’m promoting it, or I’m doing both at the same time, and I want to be where the joy is happening that I planned.” Further clarity of purpose happened during the pandemic, when Johnson said he made the decision to go sober. He’ll celebrate six years of sobriety this Halloween, he said.

Since then, he’s taken a step back from the all-in approach of booking every show he can, to the “pick your spots” approach that prioritizes shows and venues he values.

The pursuit of joy also involves continuing to play in bands — so many bands. Johnson is probably best known as the guitarist for Watkins Glen, what he describes as a “mashup celebration of Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, the band Little Feet, and ’70s funk music.” He’s also ushered in the “3.0” version of the local band Elektrapod, a dance, funk, jam, pop and R&B band that now features Johnson’s daughter, 15-year-old Scarlett Rae, on lead vocals and 22-year-old, nationally known Malaika Friedman on keys. Johnson also plays in Friedman’s jazz group, Malaika Friedman Group, as well as the “roots funk” band Sonic Benders, which plays locally. He’s also got the Brother Gabe Trio, what he describes as, “more in the vein of John Mayer trio, Steve Ray Vaughan, and more singer/songwriter oriented.”

And if that’s not enough, Johnson also puts together special bands, including the “flashback to 1976” band that will play this Halloween at McMenamins.

This year’s tribute includes everything from, “Aretha Franklin to the Eagles to Chaka Khan to Joni Mitchell,” Johnson said. “We’re picking our favorite songs from that year and really doing them justice.” With him is a special lineup of local musical luminaries, including Pete Kartsounes on vocals, Mark Quon and Lily Worona.

Parallel 44’s 1,500^th show with the Watkins Glen Super Deluxe Band (featuring Cliff Porter, Kartsounes and Swiz) is set for Saturday, Nov. 7 at Volcanic Theatre Pub. But Johnson — always in search of that front line of joy — is also welcoming Goodnight Texas at The Belfry Nov. 14, The California Honeydrops at Midtown Ballroom Nov. 18, Family Mystic at Domino Room Dec. 4 and Fractal & Sonic Benders at the Domino Room Dec. 11.

Music, after all, is supposed to bring us together.

“We haven’t lost our magic, our faith, our trust,” Johnson said, reflecting on Bend’s Oct. 15 tragedy. “Even though things like the recent shooting tamp down people’s spirit and the general messaging in this this fascist zeitgeist is for us to be afraid and to stay separate and on our phones, there is an underbelly of really strong community in this town that comes out and says no, hell no, we’re getting together.”

This article appears in the Source October 29, 2026.