James Johnson completed his B.S. in Secondary Education and Music Education at North Texas State University and received an M.A. in Music Therapy in 1982 from Texas Woman's University, where he taught guitar on the music faculty. After working as a music therapist at San Antonio State Hospital, he became the first Registered Music Therapist to work for the Windham School District in the Texas Department of Corrections, where he piloted the music therapy program with psychiatric inmates. He is retired from the Windham School District faculty where he worked as a music education director, a special education teacher, and an adult literacy teacher from 1982 to 2011.

He was on the SHSU School of Music faculty from 1991-2019, and taught Fundamental of Guitar, Advanced Guitar, and the Psychology of Music. He is currently teaching guitar and ukulele at UTMB's continuing education program OLLI, and is a member of the Galveston Ukulele Society (GUS). He is the past Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Huntsville Children's Choir, and a former member of the Huntsville Men's Choir.

James and his wife Pam produced Thoreau Woods Coffeehouse from 2010-2020 in Huntsville TX, and Johnson Studio House Concerts, in Huntsville 2011-2020, and are currently producing house concerts in Galveston.