Artist of the Month, September 2010 : Jon Dee Graham

Sep 2, 2010 Artist of the Month
Posted by Adam

A few years ago I was starting to dig into the Ray Wylie Hubbard catalog and listening to some live stuff as well. On a particular show, Ray starts to tell a story about writing a verse about a local drummer and not being sure what to do with it. He played the verse for his friend Jon Dee Graham to get his opinion on it. Graham’s answer? Write a verse about me.

So the song “Name Droppin’” was born and my introduction to Jon Dee’s music was inevitable because I had to find out more about this guy for sure. Luckily the same guy who had sent me the Ray Wylie show had some Jon Dee as well.

This was just prior to Graham releasing Full so the show I received started out with this marvelously gritty sounding song about a pirate ship, “Tie a Knot”. I was hooked from the opening guitar line and as soon as I  heard Jon’s voice I knew I had discovered something I was going to love.

I went on his website to see what was available and noticed he would be in Ohio soon, so I booked him to play at the bar and got a copy of Full in the mail.

For those of you who are not familiar with Graham, he is a Texas native and an Austin legend. He spent the beginning of his career playing guitar in the influential punk country bands The Skunks and later The True Believers (Alejandro Escovedo’s band) before embarking on his solo career.

He is a three time member of the Austin Music Hall of Fame and winner of SXSW’s Musician of the year in 2006. To this date he has released 7 solo studio albums, has had a documentary made about him and his songs were covered by a list of Texas music legends for a benefit record to help with Graham’s son’s doctor bills.

Now back to the story. So I have Jon Dee booked for a Saturday night and I’m still not really sure what to expect, I just know that the one album of his that I have is quickly becoming one of my favorite records. Unfortunately it was the worst turnout we ever had for a show and I had to pay 2/3 of the guarantee out of my pocket.

The redeeming factor was that Jon Dee went out and blew us all away for almost three hours making the investment absolutely worth it. He was completely in control of the stage both in song and banter. At the beginning of the second set he decided that it felt more like a living room with the few people that were there and unplugged his guitar and did not use the mic at all. It was amazing.

Jon Dee Graham writes songs that are so honest the word honesty does them no justice. Graham pulls no punches with anyone including himself in song at that is what really makes him stand apart from everyone else.

As always I am going to pick a few albums to really highlight from his catalog but, I have to mention the song “Faithless” from the album, Escape From Monster Island first. While not one of my favorite albums of his this song is one the best songs ever written in my opinion. It is one of the songs that you can play when you are not feeling so grand and it immediately gives you hope.

The first album I will discuss is 2004′s The Great Battle, his last release on New West Records. This record is a perfect example of Graham’s ability to write great songs with a pop sense to go alongside his gravelly vocals and perfectly timed guitar playing. The first song that really stands out on this one is “I Don’t Feel That Way”, a track that shows the growth of the narrator in his way of looking at life. “The Majesty of Love” is a song that shows how highly Graham thinks of his wife. This is a theme that Jon Dee really attacks from an angle that is not at all cliche. He has a self deprecating manor when speaking of himself in a relationship that really hits home with all of us that has a significant other that has to put up with our many shortcomings.

Later in the album, the song “Robot Moving” has some great lyrics in it. “I swore I’d never use the word irony in a song, the irony is that I never meant to live this long, yeah but I did”. A final original on this record that is a favorite of mine is “Something to Look Forward to”. Another song about the daily life of a working married man just looking for ways to make it through the tough times.

Rounding out the highlights of the album are a cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest” and the best version I’ve ever heard of the traditional “Lonesome Valley”

Full was released in 2006 and is on my short list of top 25 albums of all time. From start to finish this record is phenomenal. It has a little bit of everything, hope, love, rock n roll, death, drugs, everything you need in a great album.

The song “Holes” is such a great Rock n Roll song that it prompted me to call a friend (also a Jon Dee fan) simply to tell him what he already knew, “Holes is just a kick ass song, goodbye”. “Swept Away” is the story of a staged death, used to get away and start a new life. It also became the title to the aforementioned documentary featuring Mr. Graham.

Also previously mentioned, “Tie a Knot” has the nastiest feel to it of any song on the album and it is an absolute delight to listen to. I wouldn’t care if he was just saying a bunch of nonsense in this song because it sounds so damn cool, fortunately it has great images like “The wounded inside are weeping Portuguese wine” throughout the tune.

“Remain” is another song written for his wife. Before he played this live he asked if there was anyone in the crowd married to a musician. When a few hands went up he told them that there was a special place in heaven just for them and went into the song. “Cigarette ashes everywhere, I’m almost gone even when I’m there” pretty much sums up the life a musician’s wife has to deal with every day.

The last song I will discuss off this album is “Something Wonderful”, which is another great Rock n Roll song that brings us all hope when times are rough. Seeing live footage of this track on Youtube makes me crave to see him with a full band sometime in the future because this song is an event.

A few years ago we almost lost Jon Dee to a serious car crash. His first words to the officer who arrived on the scene were “It’s not as bad as it looks” which became the title of the album he released after his recovery. I am not going to go into a lot of detail on this because you can read my review from earlier this year here. I will say that it has continued to grow on me and when I am not listening to Full I  find myself putting this one on quite a bit.

If this article hasn’t convinced you to check out all of his recordings please shoot over to his website and peruse all of the stuff there. I guarantee if you listen to him for a short while you will feel better about going out to face the day.

One more quick story I have to mention. Not only does Jon Dee Graham release great albums, play amazing live sets and save cats from burning buildings (okay I may have made that one up) but he also builds friendships. When I was promoting the show at the bar I went into the local guitar shop to hang a flier. I was amazed that in my little hometown someone approached me immediately for tickets. The person was part owner of the store and we started a conversation about Jon Dee. Turns out he had seen Graham a few years earlier opening for John Hiatt at the Birchmere in Virginia. We immediately hit it off and now are the best of friends. If you listen to the podcasts on this site you would know him as Matt Hill, producer, engineer and master of all things recordings.


Here is Jon Dee performing “Faithless” completely unplugged from the show I mentioned. The angle of the camera is poor but the feel of the song is definitely there.

Tags: jon dee graham, ray wylie hubbard