Jon Muq

One Liner:  Absolutely lovely indie rock from a golden-voiced Ugandan living in Austin

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, this is alternative rock, indie rock

Home: Austin! (via Uganda)

Poster Position: 22
Weekend Two Only.
Saturday at 1:25.

BMI Stage.

Thoughts:  Wow.  This is really enjoyable.  And if you are a book-by-its-cover type of person, you'd never guess that this Ugandan dude on his album cover is going to sing songs like Lord Huron or Ray LaMontagne or something.  But just check out his biggest song and try to tell me that this isn't pure beauty.  "Runaway," with 248k streams.

What the hell.  Sign me up to hear that song every day for the rest of my life.  Terrible music video, not sure that he is even playing that eyeball guitar, but the music transcends.  That was also the first single - wish man, that Dan Auerbach.

No Wikipedia giving me the good background, but his bio on his own website makes him sound like a nice fella.  He says: “These days the world is sad, so I wanted to make happy songs."  Hell yeah.  He talks about living with food scarcity before coming to America, and how that affected his writing.  Since coming over, he has worked with Dan Auerbach on this album and toured with Billy Joel, Norah Jones, and others.  His first exposure to modern western music was a copy of the "We Are the World" CD that he took from a cousin - he says he wore it out, mastering the vocals and tones of all of the people on there.  That is fascinating.  Learning how to emulate Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles and so many others is amazing.

When he was 18 or 19, he saw his first guitar in person and was mesmerized.  He borrowed one and taught himself to play, winning a regular gig at a local hotel.  A video of him, walking home after a long workday and serenading homeless children apparently got noticed and let to a job on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.  His quotes are hilarious - he is like "I didn't believe the city on a ship could float!"  I wonder how he ended up in Austin.  That would be an interesting discussion.

Just the one album - 2024's Flying Away - and it is all very enjoyable stuff.  I really hope that this guy blows up in a major way.  This one is "Bend," with 52k streams.

I want to just luxuriate in that sound like a warm hug.  So wonderful.  If you read this blog all the time, then you know that I lean more towards the hard-edged stuff, but I cannot shake how perfectly smooth and enjoyable this sounds.  Makes me want to be a better person.

I would absolutely go watch this in the fall.  What a stud.  NOOOOOOO, he's weekend two only?  I hate the one weekend only thing!  I gotta figure out when he is playing Austin and just go see him!