Johnny Mullenax

Few players have bent genre boundaries the way Johnny Mullenax has from his home base in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Born into a musical family and handed a guitar at age five, he grew up on fireside singalongs, parking lot jams, and sneaking into clubs underaged, later following his family to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. That upbringing carved out a style that refuses to sit still — country, rock, bluegrass, blues, and jazz all collide in his playing and songwriting.

In January 2021, Mullenax launched a Sunday Bluegrass Brunch residency at Tulsa’s famed Mercury Lounge, a weekly gathering that blends bluegrass standards with jam band energy. Backed by flatpicking champion Thomas Trapp, Jason Boland & The Stragglers drummer Jake Lynn, and upright bassist Paul Wilkes — with dobro player Roger Ray and keyboardist Andrew Bair sitting in — the residency became a launchpad for his touring career and a proving ground for the improvised guitar face-offs he and Trapp call “hole to hole.”

His EP, “This Joint’s for You Too,” distills that range into six songs, from the sped-up swamp vamp of “Long-Haired Country Boy” to the sentimental title ballad and the blue-collar reflection “Couple Extra Hours.” With a full-length debut slated for 2027, Mullenax will spend the summer of 2026 on more than 50 dates across America, plus tours of Spain and France — the kind of run fans later brag about having seen.