Lockren
Jon

Hey, someone wanted a bio – I’ll give you folks two – a short one, for those who don’t really care, and a longer one for those who do.

Short story – started playing in junior high, first professional gig in high school. Gigged in various bands throughout college, playing in everything from FM-Rock to soul, with horn bands and even a jam band thrown in for good measure.

On graduation, moved to Australia, and hooked up with the regional band, Moonlight. Ended up with WEA recording deal, and top ten Australian single “Moonlight Lady.” Left the band when they discovered that I was American – local content rules required 80% of the band to be Australian. We had an English lead singer, and me on lead guitar. Two guesses on which was easier to replace.
Back in the States, been playing various instruments in various bands ever since. Between touring gigs, did some studio work. Was in a state of semi-retirement when Luke (drummer extraordinaire) told me about a vacancy with the band Lockren. Only took first couple of songs in the audition for me to know I wanted to play with the band. Will be hit the one year mark in March – thanks for letting me play with ya

.Long Version:

And feel free to ignore, if you aren’t really interested, or bored. While I have no formal training in guitar (I think GIT does an excellent job of turning out GIT players, nothing more or less) I have had 12 years of instrumental and classical training on various woodwind instruments. Was a music major at ISU for two years, before I began having too much fun touring and playing guitar in rock bands. Before I left the music program, I was concert master for the ISU Concert Band, and toured with ISU Jazz 1 on guitar.
But folks, I like music, I like playing for appreciative crowds, and I like having fun. (Making a few bucks doesn’t hurt either.) After a few abortive bands, including a Black Sabbath tribute band before that was cool, I ended up in a funk/soul band, exposing Iowa and Minnesota farm kids to the wonders of Sly and the Family Stone. Actually pretty fun – nothing better than being the house band in a strip club when you’re 17 years old.

Eventually that ended; I wasn’t good enough on the wah-wah to suit the evolving musical requirements of funk, so I ended up in Iowa’s seminal jam band, Jebidiah Stone. While there were exceptions, our two main rules were no songs off AM radio, and nothing shorter than 5 minutes. Compared to all of the radio-based cover bands, we were a marked alternative, so much so that we were booked on a steady basis in half a dozen states, before I left for Australia.

In Oz, I got lucky – went to exactly ONE Musician’s Union meeting. At that meeting the band Moonlight was playing. Superb band, but they had no guitar player, getting by on the talents of an excellent lead singer, a great rhythm section, and a keyboard player who went on to tour with Little River Band. After their set was over, I went backstage, told them they were great, but that they needed a guitar player – ME. They bought it. Joined the band, toured Queensland, got our WEA contract, went to the studio, had a few tv specials, and of course, lip-synched our single on the OZ version of American Bandstand (Countdown, for those who really want to know.) Lots of fun – as the area’s premier band, we got to open for most of the International touring acts – pretty much everyone except for Paul McCartney. Got to hang backstage with Tommy Bolin and Deep Purple, Jackson Browne, ELO. Ended up as Bo Diddley’s backup band – much to his chagrin. A bunch of prog rockers without a black bone in their bodies, and he had to count on us to make him look good. But it worked out in the end.

As I explained in the short version, legal hassles got me out of the band; tax laws got me back Stateside. Moved back to Iowa, have been here ever since. While I’ve been in a number of bands since returning, it’s a lot harder hooking up with a major band in Cedar Falls than it is in a city of 2 million people. Oh well – traffic’s a lot better here.

In Lockren, I play guitar – lead guitar, thank-you very much. I’ve also played keyboard, bass, sax, and drums. At times, have even been desperate enough to be lead singer/frontman. Trust me – you’re much better off listening to Amanda than me. But I’m better on guitar. I’ve been in soul bands; was with some very hot players from DSM in a horn band – very good stuff, but not a lot of commercial appeal. Have played in pretty much every version of rock, pop, classic rock, and country cover band you could imagine. Which is why I was in semi-retirement when Lockren found me – you can only play the same Classic Rock song so many times, so many different ways, before you get the urge to poke your eyes out. I’m reminded of a quote from Joe Walsh, as he was introducing Rocky Mountain Way. He said, “If I’d a known I was going to be playing this song forever, I’d a written a better song.” Know exactly how he feels.

So, now I’m playing country – which isn’t as unnatural as it may seem. I have always been happiest playing music of the country rock genre – it always felt more real than the stilted, progressive rock that I played in Moonlight, and other bands like that. Much of today’s popular music is just the same, only more so. If you want to hear words that mean something, and a new tune that actually has a tune, for the most part you have to be listening to Modern Country. It works for me – come on out, see if it works for you.