Jon Black

Alt Country / Folk Rock Birmingham, AL

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Music on Rotation Jul 13

Weezer - The Red Album

A while back I said I wasn't sure about Weezer's new album (The Red Album). I longed for the days of the Blue Album and Pinkerton. Now, let me go on record and take back my comment of:
After a few listens I've come to the conclusion that their are...

Billboard

On the day of his first corporate fire drill, Jon Black heard two alarms go off one at his office and the other in his soul. Like countless others, he had been crammed into a small cubicle, working customer service for a software company in Charleston, SC, trapped in a corporate purgatory in which every day resembled the one before. Jon had moved to Charleston after graduating college in his home state of Georgia, and upon entering the work force took a good look around and realized something: this was not what he had expected. And then came the noise.

"At first, I remember people just kind of looking around, confused. You could see people prairie-dogging (heads popping up over the tops of their cubicles) all wondering what they should do," says Black, "Pretty soon, were all walking down these steps, exiting the building. We were to line up in this big open space according to our department, and ours was in the back. As I walked by all the other departments, I just remember thinking about how miserable everyone looked, how they all seemed to have this look of resignation like this was it for the rest of their lives. The whole thing was very surreal, like an out-of-body experience. I knew that day I had to get out."

For the next eight months, Jon planned his escape from corporate America, and in the spring of 2004, Jon officially left his cubicle to pursue a career in music. "I knew when I walked out the door I was taking a chance. I was writing my own story, regardless of what ended up happening." Jon entered the studio and emerged with The Rhythm of the Rising Sun, a collection of brash, emotionally-charged indie-pop songs concerned with wanting more out of life a direct result of his experiences working in the corporate world. The question that kept coming back to me was, What if people quit doing what they were supposed to do and started doing what they were called to do?

Determined to answer that question for himself, Jon spent the next year and a half trekking from city to city across the U.S., performing at coffee houses, clubs, summer camps, bars, living rooms, small festivals, and even a few gazebos, selling nearly 2000 copies of Rhythm and building an incredibly loyal and enthusiastic base of fans. Long-time friend and founder of Athens, GA nonprofit label Rebuilt Records Jason Harwell offered to help out, and in June, 2005, Jon signed on to the labels roster. Harwell says, "I had always been impressed with Jon as a person, but to see him take such a huge risk and to completely put himself into it showed how dedicated Jon was, how hard he was willing to work. We knew we wanted to be a part of what he was doing."

That following August and September, Black and Harwell embarked on their first self-booked national Truck Stops & Coffee Shops tour, a twenty-date, four week affair that took the songwriters from South Carolina to California and back. Road-tested and energized from a successful tour, Jon again entered the studio in October, 2005 - this time with Grammy-winning producer/engineer Mitch Dane (Jars of Clay, Billy Cerveny) at his Sputnik Studios in Nashville, TN. Three weeks later, Jon put the finishing touches on the aptly-titled album, The October Sky. Says Dane of the recording sessions, "Jon was always willing to make art, not just record some songs." Featuring the talents of Andrea Zonn (James Taylor), Cason Cooley (the Normals, Derek Webb Trio), Kenny Hutson (Vigilantes of Love), Kenny Meeks (Buddy Miller, Sixpence None the Richer), and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Richard Dodd (Tom Petty, Wilco, Johnny Cash), The October Sky (released April 11, 2006) is a collection of twangy folk-rock anthems that find Black getting back to his roots and optimistically looking into the future. "After a year and a half of doing this, these are my thoughts and stories. Instead of longing to be out of that cubicle, Im now on the other side. I feel that whatever happens now, Ive accomplished something. Its an enormous sense of freedom."

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Discography - see all 2

• 

  Goodbye Golden Age

• 

  The October Sky

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