Johnny Bell

Johnny Bell is a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based banjoist and composer who treats the five-string banjo as a vehicle for expansive, progressive instrumental music. Working from within the lineage of American Primitive music while drawing equally on heavier experimental influences, he pairs traditional clawhammer technique with acoustic drone, recursive patterns, and layered textures that foreground the instrument's darker and more resonant possibilities. His 2026 album Mountain States, co-released by Centripetal Force and Australia's Ramble Records and co-produced with Andrew Weathers, is his first fully composed solo banjo record, following the field-recording-driven Field Trips (2024). He has played in multi-instrumental contexts for more than two decades and tours widely across the American West.