Jason Wilber

Artist Information

Biography

In addition to pleasing audiences in the United States and Europe with the alternately witty and insightful songs featured on his 5 solo CDs Lost In Your Hometown, Behind The Midway, King For A Day, Live and Otherwise Volume 1, and Lazy Afternoon, Jason Wilber has played lead guitar for notable folk, rock, and country artists John Prine, Hal Ketchum, Greg Brown, Iris DeMent, Todd Snider, Greg Trooper, Carrie Newcomer, and Tim Grimm.

Highlights of Jason’s work with John Prine include two Grammy nominated albums: Live On Tour and In Spite of Ourselves (which spent 32 weeks on the Billboard Country Charts) and the 2006 Grammy Award winning album Fair & Square.

Jason Wilber’s TV and radio appearances include Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Sessions At West 54th Street, Austin City Limits, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, CNN’s Entertainment Week, The Road, Mountain Stage, E-Town, and The Grand Ole Opry.

Instrumentation

Jason Wilber is wonderful solo or with his band
Jason Wilber - Guitar and Vocals
David Jacques - Bass
Paul Griffith - Drums
Kevin McKendree - Piano

Discography

Jason Wilber CDs:
Lazy Afternoon - 2006
Live and Otherwise Volume 1 - 2006
King For a Day - 2004
Amber Waves - 2002
Behind The Midway - 2000
Lost In Your Hometown - 1998

With Other Artists:
John Prine - Fair and Square
John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves
John Prine - Souvenirs
John Prine - Live on Tour
John Prine - Sessions at West 54th St.
Hal Ketchum - Awaiting Redemption
Hal Ketchum - I Saw the Light
Todd Snider - New Connection
Tim Grimm - The Backfields
Tim Grimm - Names
Tim Grimm - Coyote's Dream
Tim Grimm - Heartland
Carrie Newcomer - The Age of Possibility
Carrie Newcomer - My Father's Only Son
Carrie Newcomer - Betty's Diner
Jennie Devoe - Fireworks and Karate Supplies
Krista Detor - Cover Their Eyes
Over The Rhine - Ohio
Over The Rhine - Discount Fireworks

Various Artists - Larger Than Life: A Celebration of Steve Goodman and His Music - with John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Todd Snider, Jackson Browne, Kathy Mattea
Various Artists - The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family
Various Artists - For Anyone That's Listening - Uncle Tupelo Tribute
Various Artists - Lucky 13 - Oh Boy Records
Various Artists - The Singer-Songwriter Collection - Rounder Records
Various Artists - Philadelphia Folk Festival - 40th Anniversary Box Set
Various Artists - Hit The Hay - Volume 5

Official Website

http://www.jasonwilber.net

Audio

• Lazy Afternoon
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• The Last Meeting of The Quakertown Optimist Club (live)
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• You Don't Know What You're Getting Into
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• Your Destiny
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Lyrics

• Lazy Afternoon

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Mark Guarino [+ Show ]
  

  “…a songwriter who sings of small discoveries and caustic contradictions with Midwestern understatem...“…a songwriter who sings of small discoveries and caustic contradictions with Midwestern understatement and blunt truth. The album title is a song, recorded live, that skewers Elvis Presley at his most debauched. Funny and obvious until its follow-up, a solitary and sad rendering of ‘Don't Be Cruel’. Wilber's downcast interpretation makes the song faintly familiar but entirely different. His later covers (including Prine's ‘Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone’ and the sublime Rowland Salley song ‘Killing the Blues’) are highlights and well positioned against his originals. Which include a wry, talking blues about a state government bureaucracy ("Talk about 69") and the magnetic field of romance (‘In Her Veins’). Here his true colors shine through: a folk craftsman who knows how to deliver the news.”

• Peter Cooper [+ Show ]
  

  “Jason Wilber has impressed blues curmudgeon Roy Book Binder and songwriting kingdaddy John Prine, m...“Jason Wilber has impressed blues curmudgeon Roy Book Binder and songwriting kingdaddy John Prine, musicians whose opinions rightly carry more weight than a few paragraphs from any music critic. Book Binder has been playing Wilber's The Ballad of Amazing Grace and Sideshow Dan for years, and Prine's road shows feature Wilber on stringed instruments and harmony vocals. Recorded in Bloomington, Ind., and released with little hubbub, Wilber's Behind the Midway meets the expectations brought about by such heavyweight associations. His voice is closer in timbre to Paul Simon than to Prine, and it works best on plaintive songs such as the opening track Lay Down When You're Done: "Crooked people, empty stairs/ The windows rattle and the daylight's scarce," begins that loping ballad, with lyrics evocative enough to bring Prine's Far From Me or Angel From Montgomery to mind.”
  

• Marilyn Beyer [+ Show ]
  

  What a terrific record! Ordinarily, I wouldn't suggest starting a studio album with a live track, bu...What a terrific record! Ordinarily, I wouldn't suggest starting a studio album with a live track, but it's perfect. And what a sneaky lead-in to "Don't Be Cruel," which you deliver in such a sly manner... slipping in all the emotion in your rather sleepy delivery. Speaking of covers, not just anybody would choose "Sabu" from the John Prine song book. Another nice surprise. I don't like to "play favorites," pardon the pun. I have one, nonetheless. "Satellite." What a grand flight of emotional imagination. Thanks for sending in the CD. It will be on the air starting Monday."
  
  

Setlist

Set lists vary depending on length of show, type of audience, etc.

Basic Requirements

Calendar