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Writer's pictureThe House of Songs
Apr 6, 20203 min read

At Home with The House of Songs: Johnny Dango & Doug Strahan


Today, At Home with The House of Songs recommends a special song swap Instagram Live concert: Austin's Johnny Dango and Doug Strahan will share songs from one of their most influential albums, Willie Nelson's "Shotgun Willie" on Instagram Live at 4PM CDT. Find the live stream through their Instagram accounts (@johnydango and @dougstrahan).


John and Dango perform together with The Memphis Strange and The Boo Gees with Beth Chrisman, and also front their own groups, Johnny Dango & The Stinking Roses, and Strahan & The Good Neighbors. Johnny and Doug have been an active participant in our #ATXP2P local co-write programs, and Johnny co-write with our artist-in-residence Joy Regwan last fall.

Tune in, enjoy some Willie tunes from two Austin songwriters, and support your favorite artists by tipping, buying merch and making plans to see a live concert whenever you can leave your house.


JOHNNY DANGO Johnny Dango is a writer & musician. He sings, plays guitar and a few other instruments, and was born, raised & partially educated in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He has been living in Austin, Texas for the last 15+ years and will be releasing a wealth of new music in the coming months, with both his newest band, Johnny Dango & The Stinking Roses, as well as with his band of the last six years, The Memphis Strange. A former journalist & schoolteacher, Dango’s musical journey began with piano lessons in 2nd grade and singing in the church choir before going on to professional stints as a sideman for Red Dirt rocker Stoney LaRue and founding member of indie band Brothers & Sisters. An avid fisherman, he has also been known to smoke a mean rack of ribs.



DOUG STRAHAN Strahan grew up in Carrollton, IL, a farm town near the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, where the countryside was an expanse of corn fields, ravines, bluffs, and tributaries snaking their way alongside the backroads. His father, Alvin Roscoe Strahan played lead guitar, his grandma, Nina Strahan, played banjo which later in life led to ukuleles, and his grandpa, George Schnelten, had an enduring love for singing and recording songs a capella at home--they all encouraged music in their own ways. When Doug was 12 years old, he was starting to get to some trouble, and so his father decided it was time to start teaching him how to play guitar, with a stylistically broad approach, ranging from rock n roll, to country, to jazz. This carried on in a very loose arrangement through his teens, all the while, Doug was also learning rock and metal tunes with the use of guitar tabs, not to mention writing songs. As kids do, he continued to get into trouble, but the addition of music to his life gave a much needed outlet for that youngster angst and his introverted tendencies. It also gave way to visions of a life outside of a small town. Rock on 20 years to the turn of the millennium, Strahan moved from his college town, Charleston, IL to Austin, TX.


After 13 years of playing lead guitar in various bands, as well as recording and co-­leading Austin's strangest boogie-doom­-beast, Chili Cold Blood and cosmic country purveyors of funky ­tonk, the Moonhangers, Doug released his debut solo album entitled “Coal Black Dreams, Late Night Schemes.” As much a stew pot of roots music as CCB and MH's previous albums, the solo record eases on in the direction of Blue-­Eyed Soul but finds home on the bar stool of the Dew Drop Inn, The Horse Shoe Lounge, your neighborhood watering hole. It was a different direction for Strahan, much to do with his time playing and writing with The Memphis Strange, but the Gary Stewart­-esque vibrato remains.


In 2015, he and Good Neighbors released the sophomore, self-titled album, Strahan & The Good Neighbors. It's country funk at it's finest, with touches of Little Feat, JJ Cale, and The Allman Bros. For the next album, he set out to feature twin guitars front and center on six songs. The end result, produced by everyone in the band, was Twilight Drifter, released in November of 2017, best described as country rhythm and blues. His forthcoming LP, Sadie, is anticipated for release in May 2020.



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