SPOTLIGHT: Dean Johnson on Finding The Right Producer in Sera Cahoone [ESSAY]

Editor's Note: Dean Johnson is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for August 2025. Learn more about the Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter and his new album I Hope We Can Still Be Friends, due out August 22 via Saddle Creek all month long.

I’d been going to see Sera Cahoone play in Seattle since shortly after her first album came out — from Tractor Tavern shows to private music magazine parties with a connected friend (this was two or three years before I’d ever sung a song on a Seattle stage). I loved seeing her perform and would sometimes be amazed witnessing the tenacious energy that skinny Colorado girl could get out of a Seattle audience. I was always dying to hear the song “Last Time” and the haunting atmosphere her pedal steel player, Jay Kardong, could help create behind her voice and guitar.