Johnny 99 is the alter ego of John Sponarski, guitarist in City and Colour, but as Johnny 99 he has been carrying the torch for classic country music for many years, as heard on the 2021 Johnny 99 debut album Words Left Unsaid. The long-overdue follow-up is slated for later in 2025.
Once again, City and Colour fans will likely be surprised to hear how naturally Johnny, multi instrumentalist Matt Kelly, bassist Erik Nielsen and drummer Leon Power immerse themselves in vintage country, with the icing on the cake added by fiddler Michael Cleveland and Georgia Harmer on backing vocals. And like many classic country songs, there’s more going on in the lyrics than the infectious rhythm might suggest.
The evolution of Johnny 99 began after Sponarski earned his Bachelor’s Degree in music and spent the ensuing years touring as one half of the acclaimed duo Portage and Main, whose legacy is two albums of heartfelt roots rock. After that project’s dissolution, John began building his reputation as one of Vancouver’s in-demand session guitarists, working on countless records and backing up artists such as Aaron Pritchett, Ben Rogers, and Elliot C. Way.
While getting to perform with Dallas Green on a nightly basis has fulfilled one of his primary ambitions, it is under the guise of Johnny 99 that Sponarski has been able to forge his own musical identity. After relocating to Toronto in 2023, he and Matt Kelly began working on a new batch of tunes, essentially music they’ve dreamt of making together for years: Songs that paint pictures of lovable losers, fallen friends, and the broken-hearted, set to the soundtrack of country music from a bygone age. It’s country music that was made to dance to. Honky tonk music. And right now, few artists in Canada are doing it better than Johnny 99.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the modern honky tonk gem “Just Like You” along with its music video. Sponarski silky, easygoing vocals carry this song while his bandmates provide complementary twang that takes this back to the dance halls and dive bars of yesterday. In true classic country form, Sponarski delivers a song that is dancefloor-ready and buoyant yet is sad enough to shed some tears in your beer. As one might expect from the guys in City in Colour, the song and its music are remarkably tight and sound as if these guys were born to play authentic honky tonk music. The video also captures the spirit of this as the band plays to a loose and lively crowd of dancers and boozers.
Sponarski says, “‘Just Like You’ is an upbeat song, but it has a darker theme at its core. It’s about finding yourself stuck on the hamster wheel, going from one toxic relationship to the next. You’re thinking you’re learning from your mistakes, but you’re really just repeating them over and over again. You’re fully aware of the types of people that are ‘bad for you,’ but they still draw you in. I guess the underlying question the song asks is, when our desires undermine our happiness, why is it so hard to try something new?”
WATCH:
