Jon Lawton
Jon Lawton
Music
Get the latest release, explore the back catalog, see a few songs live, and read a bit from Jon on the inspiration behind it all.
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New Release
Jon's latest release leans all the way into the blues, cut live in the studio at Greaseland in San Jose with Kid Andersen, alongside some of the best roots musicians the Bay Area has to offer. It's a mix of blues classics and Jon's own songs, built for longtime blues heads and newcomers alike.
“There are very few people playing blues guitar that I would say have their own style AND are straight up great blues players, but Jon Lawton is one of those artists.”
Chris “Kid” Andersen, guitarist and producer, Greaseland Studios
“The first time I heard Jon Lawton play, I felt right at home again with the blues. He seemed to have a deep wellspring of material, most of it original, to choose from and he played it all with great feelin'.”
Steve Freund, guitarist, singer, and producer
Where to hear it
Earlier records
Watch
From Jon
Jon started writing songs at fourteen, and he's never really stopped since. These recordings are less a catalog than a kind of time machine: hearing one back brings the whole session rushing back, the musicians, the jokes, the disagreements, the explanations. A few of these songs were only ever played once, live, and just happened to get caught on tape.
Most of it gets written on groggy midnight drives, scribbled on whatever paper happens to be around, the rhythm inspired by the beat of the tires on the quiet road. Jon's never been the type to sit down and write a song as an exercise, which is maybe why it still catches him off guard when other people can manage to pull that off.
This collection isn't a vanity project; it's closer to a pile of buried treasure he's hoping the right stranger eventually stumbles onto. He counts Steve Earle, John Prine, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Merle Haggard, CSNY, Townes van Zandt, Lucinda Williams, and Dylan among the songwriters that keep him honest.
As Jon puts it, he still wants to “push these songs through the birth canal” and get them out where people can actually hear them.
Jon offers a way to chip in toward the real cost of making these records, entirely optional and never required to listen.
