Johnston City is the dream band of Dashville native Daniel T Johnston, a star-studded assemblage of fellow travellers who collaborate and deliver his classic rock’n’roll bangers with something bordering on telepathy. JC have been slowly but surely building a cult following with their anthemic, sweetly swaying yet classically muscular sound that owes as much to the subtleties of vocal doo-wop groups of the ‘60s as it does to the sledgehammer barn-burners of Springsteen and Seger. The measure of an original band is how they can hook a new crowd with that familiar warm and fuzzy feeling, even though they are hearing the tunes for the first time. Johnston City have that feelgood juice by the bucketload. Their long awaited debut long player, Decies Pride, is in the bag after a magical sojourn at Grove Studios with the extended family. Under the cosmic ears of producer Adam Young and engineer Damien Charles and will be released in 2025. There could be no more fitting place to unleash this vintage V8 on the world than Johnston City’s spiritual home, Dashville, at the 20th anniversary edition of the Gum Ball festival.