Jude began playing the piano and writing songs at around age eight. Upstairs, her older brothers played Beatles' records while downstairs in her Dad's office you might hear Glenn Miller, Sarah Vaughn or Tony Bennett. In the living room, her mom would often be practicing some choir music for church. Jude took all of it in and was a dedicated musician by age 12.
She started playing clubs at 16 and at 19, she surprised no one when she headed West to continue to hone her skills in the studios and nightclubs of LA, where she found herself collaborating with many of the city's top producers including Henry Lewy, T-Bone Burnett, & Chuck Plotkin.
Johnstone immersed herself in songwriting and has enjoyed a successful career for more than 20 years. Her songs have been praised and covered by an impressive list of artists including Emmylou Harris (Hold On), Stevie Nicks (Cry Wolf), Bonnie Raitt (Wounded Heart), Jennifer Warnes (The Nightingale), Bette Midler (The Girl is On To You), Trisha Yearwood (Hearts in Armor), and Johnny Cash (Unchained), the title cut to his 1997 Grammy-winning album. Johnstone also wrote the number 1 song, "The Women Before Me," for Trisha Yearwood’s debut CD, which was recognized with a BMI Songwriters Award.
With the desire to promote her songs to a wider audience she and longtime manager Bob Burton decided to go into the studio aided by Garth Fundis, (Yearwood's longtime producer), to record an album of her own. They released her debut CD "Coming of Age" in 2002 on BoJak Records. "Coming of Age" received critical acclaim leading to an interview on NPR's Morning Edition and was #6 on Amazon's Best Seller's List. Her songs "Wounded Heart" and "The Nightingale," from "Coming of Age" and "In This House" and "The Hereafter," from her sophomore CD "On a Good Day," have been featured in Lifetime/ABC’s television hit series "Army Wives." "On a Good Day" generated impressive media buzz which led to Johnstone's national television debut where she performed the title track on CBS's "The Early Show." Johnstone’s most recent CDs, "Blue Light" and "Mr. Sun," are jazz/blues influenced projects possessing the distinctively sensitive and soulful qualities found in her previous two discs.
