Mpls: Dean Johnson at Turf Club (Jan 24, 2026)

January 24, 2026 Saturday
Dean Johnson
with Lily Seabird
at Turf Club
first-avenue.com

Seattle-based songwriter Dean Johnson will be headlining the Turf Club, in St Paul, on January 24, 2026, in support of his Saddle Creek album I Hope We Can Still Be Friends.

We saw Johnson in Sep 2025 and wrote, “Once again, I found myself not knowing anything about an opening act and, once again, I was pleasantly surprised. Dean Johnson looks (at least from 200-feet) like he could’ve just stepped off of a horse he had ridden in from Wyoming. You know, tired, thirsty and dusty. No wait, I mean he looks like a cowboy, yeah that’s it. Turns out he’s from Seattle, the son of a powerful mayonnaise magnate from Camano Island, who has spent the last 20 years tending bar and honing his craft. Reading the article in the link just above, helped me appreciate some of his stage banter. It describes him as a perfectionist, which puts his comments to the crowd about messing up a lyric or chord into context. I certainly didn’t notice any mistakes. Of course, as I said, he was new to me. Maybe everyone else was laughing to themselves about his mistakes. Why is everyone so mean? He has a really nice voice, which tends towards falsetto at times. His songs are pure Americana and his accompanying band were all professionals; their sound was tight. I don’t have a complete setlist because he didn’t tell us the names of his songs, just what they’re about, and he played a new song so setlist.fm can’t help us. One song that stuck out for me was “So Much Better”, which he told us is about the exaggerated effects of electroshock therapy on the song’s protagonist and its set to a lovely tune. The band played for about 45 minutes and did themselves proud. They were an opening band worth seeing. Thanks, Mr. Johnson. I hope you enjoy the ride back to Wyoming. I mean Seattle.”

Lily Seabird to open.

Tour dates