Time for Perfection

Meet Eric Johnson, the ever fresh-faced and soft-spoken guitar hero known for his startling musical prowess and perfectionism--which means huge gaps between albums.

His newest release, “Venus Isle,” came six years after the popular “Ah Via Musicom,” which came five years after his major label debut, “Tones.” Maybe that’s one secret of his youthful appearance: Time goes by at a slower pace for this 43-year-old.

When Johnson met for a lunch interview at the Austin Four Seasons in Texas, he was grappling, in his own gentle way, with another source of frustration: trying to find a vegetarian meal without eggs. No worry: The chef was more than happy to make substitutions for one of Austin’s locals made good.

Some might see his staunch vegetarianism as another contradiction, running against the stereotype of a rock guitar icon. But Johnson, who plays the Ventura Theatre on Sunday, has carved out his own niche by weaving together influences of his heroes in rock and jazz--Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Wes Montgomery, the Beatles, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck and others--and creating a compelling personal style.

It’s mainly a rock instrumental sound, with a few vocal tunes delivered in a smooth, understated voice. In the fall, Johnson joined two other electric-guitar legends, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, on a kind of guitar superheroes’ tour. Of the three, he’s the kindliest one, or so the reputation goes.

Johnson’s first public endeavor was fairly secret. It was in the early ‘80s and he was the guitarist on fellow Austin musician Christopher Cross’ first album. But Johnson was already well known around Texas and the South. By the time “Tones” came out in 1986, Johnson was being lauded by guitar magazines as one of the finest players around, though the album didn’t attract a large audience.

That changed in 1990 with the release of “Ah Via Musicom,” which slowly and surely became a rare instrumental radio hit, “Cliffs of Dover.” Suddenly, Johnson faced a new challenge in coming up with a follow-up album, which took six years to surface.

“You have to follow a successful record, but you want to make a different record. At the same time, you have your own personal vested interest in the areas that you want to grow in,” he said. “So that’s all mixed together.” There were things about ‘Ah Via Musicom’ and about my style that I wanted to work on, to become more fluid and agile.”

Whatever kudos that observers, critics and fans heap on Johnson, he tends to be hard on himself.

“It’s not that I play that precisely. If I were just to organically make a record, without editing out stuff, people would be shocked. They’d say, ‘What happened to him, man?’ ” he said laughing. “When I listen to live tapes, there are some great moments, but then there is that other stuff. The solos start meandering, I start speeding up, playing too stiff.

“To find a part takes me a long time,” said Johnson. “I just do it over and over again.”

Johnson is on the right track, continuing to make the electric guitar a human-scale musical tool.

* Eric Johnson will perform Sunday at Ventura Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St., Ventura. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15; 648-1888.

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Up the Coast: In Santa Barbara, it will be an extremely rich weekend for jazz and unusual variations thereof. Tonight at Emerald City, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz will show up with his latest group, the funky organ-based band called Zony Mash, which just released “Cold Spell” on the Knitting Factory label.

Now based in Seattle, Horvitz was entrenched in the New York City scene of composers and improvisers during the ‘80s and was in John Zorn’s notorious post-modern party band, Naked City. Horvitz also has led the fascinating, hard-to-categorize band the President and Pigpen.

On Friday, head to the hip locale known as the Mercury Lounge in downtown Goleta, where the mysterious guitar hero known as Buckethead will bring his loud, fast and artful music to the intimate, ceramic-poodle-filled venue.

Buckethead, so named for the Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket he wears as a hat over a white mask, which keeps him incognito, played with Bill Laswell’s art-rock-ish band Praxis as well as on his own projects but shuns the spotlight.

On Sunday night, noted jazz pianist and Ojai resident Roger Kellaway plays his first gig at SOhO, a fine room for jazz. Kellaway will be joined by bassist Chris Symer and drummer Tom Lackner.

* Wayne Horvitz and Zony Mash, tonight at Emerald City, 110 Santa Barbara St., Santa Barbara; 965-5050.

* Buckethead, 9 p.m., Fri., at Mercury Lounge, 5871 Hollister Ave., Goleta; 967-0907.

* Roger Kellaway, 8 p.m., Sun., at SOhO, 1221 State St., Santa Barbara; 962-7776.