FOR over 20 years, Anthony ‘Papa D’ Johnson has pulled double duties as guitarist/vocalist for journeyman band The Sixth Revelation. Two years ago, he decided to branch out and record a solo album.

Production on that album, Guide Me, is well underway. Johnson has already put out two songs (A Girl Like You and 23rd Psalm) from the set which he expects to eventually contain 16 songs, all composed by him.

Though he is still a member of The Sixth Revelation, Johnson, 53, says the time has come for him to express himself as an artiste.

“I wanted a different feel with different players and it has worked out so far,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Johnson is in Westmoreland laying tracks for the self-produced Guide Me at Highlight Recording Studio. That facility’s owner, Paul ‘Sly’ Francis played drums on the songs.

Originally from Cheapside in Manchester, Johnson cut his musical teeth with The Sixth Revelation on the north coast hotel circuit in the early 1990s.

While working the tourist beat, the eight-piece band impressed a German visitor with entertainment ties in his homeland. He took them to Germany where they quickly found work in Buchhausen, a town just outside of Munich.

Since the mid-1990s, The Sixth Revelation have been partially based in Germany. They are regulars on the club and festival scene there, as well as in other European countries.

Johnson plans to release A Girl Like You and 23rd Psalm locally. Guide Me is tentatively scheduled for a December release.