Jono Manson

Three seconds into November, Jono Manson makes one thing clear: The party has begun. November is the latest release from a prolific singer-songwriter who has reason to celebrate. Manson, who splits his time between Santa Fe and Italy, has built a career out of making people happy while they dance. Not too shabby.

The music is a mix of blues, roots and rock that has touches of jam-band flair. Manson’s songs are tight, polished and include the masterful musicianship of Santa Feans such as Mark Clark, Sharon Gilchrist and Chris Ishee.

Lyrically November is an odd mix of political and playful. The balance makes the album neither hokey fluff nor over-politicized soapboxing.

Manson isn’t breaking new ground with November; he carries on the tradition of light-hearted, yet intelligent, driving music that he’s been helping to create, as a songwriter and producer, since the early 1990s.

By Patricia Sauthoff
Published: March 19, 2008





SFR Talk: Happy Blues
WITH JONO MANSON
By Jonanna Widner
Published: August 23, 2006

You sound really happy on your new album—is there good stuff going on in your life?
Yeah, actually a lot of good things are going on in my life, although a lot of those songs I wrote during some fairly dark times. We made the record really quickly, we recorded most of it in one day, and as the stuff started coming back, that’s why I ended up calling the album Summertime, [because] when we were mixing the first song on the record, my friend who I co-produced the album with, Craig Dreyer, said, ‘When I listen to this song, I feel like I’m driving to the beach with the top down and the wind blowing. Wow, it’s just such a summertime record.’ Also I consciously wanted to make kind of a lighter album, regardless of what was going on in my life. Sometimes you make the saddest songs when you’re feeling the best, and vice versa.

Why were you shooting for a more upbeat sound?
In some ways it’s more of my roots, because the bar bands I played in, like 20 years ago in New York, they were kind of just good time party sort of R&B bands. The band I was in for 10 years was a horn band and I haven’t made a record with horns on it a long time, so I kind of wanted that bar band vibe again. And there’s some funny songs on the record and some sarcastic ones, but there’s definitely some serious ones on there too. I think you open people up with humor a little bit and then you get your message in there.

That’s particularly notable on one of my favorites, which is the didgeridoo song…
A lot of people tend to gravitate toward that one. That song I co-wrote with my friend Bruce Dinola and I think I can speak for both of us when I say that, personally, I have nothing against the didgeridoo per se as an instrument, but the point of that song is that in the hands of the unqualified, it can become a weapon of mass destruction. It’s not about any particular experience, but almost everyone who hears that song says, ‘Oh, I know exactly who you’re talking about—that guy’s on the Plaza right now,’ or, ‘in the parking lot at a Grateful Dead concert,’ whatever. And so if you listen, if you get to the bridge of the tune, the real message is that what you do needs to come from someplace real inside of you, and if it doesn’t people are not really gonna feel it. While I do have something to say to that particular person—I’m not gonna try and deny that—that’s really the message I’m trying to get across—if you want to use that as a metaphor, there’s lots of people who play the didgeridoo in their lives.

Who plays that bit at the end where there is a didgeridoo?
Actually it’s a sample, because to try and invite a didgeridoo player to be a guest on that song was going to be kind of tricky. Although, just after I wrote that song, before I recorded it, I was at a barbecue in Rio en Medio and there was a jam and there was a guy playing didgeridoo and I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this song and we can jam on it,’ and I actually sang the song with a didgeridoo player. And about halfway through he was like [makes confused face], ‘I’m sure if this is funny or not.’ Lighten up, you know!

It seems like that particular genre of player is the most humorless…
Look, I was a long-haired freak in my teens too, you know, and beyond; now I just wear my long hair on the inside. But if you have to work that hard to say, ‘Hey, man, I’m so free, relax’…I don’t want to generalize, but when you get down to it, they are the most uptight. I was having a conversation about this with some friends—because I spend a lot of time in Europe, I’ve lived on and off for the past four years in Italy—and I’ve got friends there who are, like, Italian hippies, but their brand of being hippie is a different thing, it’s more like what I remember as a kid. Now it’s like the superficial trappings of that lifestyle versus the substance.

What is your connection to Italy?
My connection started by accident. In 1995, I had a record on A&M, a major - The Santa Fe Reporter

H.O.R.D.E. mentor Jono Manson goes nationwide with a li'l help from his friends in Blues Traveler
By Serene Dominic
Published: November 16, 1995
Attention, CD shoppers: Manson may be lurking somewhere in your disc collection.

If you're one of the four million souls to throw down for a copy of Blues Traveler's Four so far, cue up the last cut on the album ("Brother John") and wait for one Jono Manson to make his grand vocal entrance. Oh, yeah--and be patient.

"As you can hear, I'm prominently featured on the last 30 seconds of the album," the perky rocker explains. "But it's a climactic point in the record."

Luckily, it looks like Manson's time in the spotlight is far from up. A onetime New Yorker who now calls Tesuque, New Mexico, home, Jono recently spent a dizzying week flying to and from Los Angeles to meet with Mike Regan, his "product manager" to discuss marketing strategies for his soon-to-be-released major-label debut. Regan also took the newly signed singer on a meet-and-greet blitz of the A&M Records corporate complex. If there was a photocopier repairman in the building that day, chances are he pressed palms with Jono.

From the brass on down, Manson says, everyone at his label seemed committed (make that pumped) to get behind Almost Home, which is due out December 5--three weeks after the Jono Manson Band took over the opening slot for the Western leg of Blues Traveler's current tour.

Besides showcasing Manson's whiskey-kissed vocals and gut-bucket guitar riffing, Almost Home features Blues Traveler guitarist Chan Kinchla and bassist Bobby Sheehan playing back-up on every cut. Even with several harmonica cameos by Traveler harp honcho John Popper and production work by BT board man Mike Barbiero, however, Home is hardly an ersatz Blues Traveler album.

"I got a feeling a lot of people will come into this album thinking that," Manson predicts. "But they'll ultimately realize it's a great blend of what I do and what those guys do."

Vive la difference: Whereas Popper often uses his intricate lyrics to establish a rhythm, Manson uses words as a way to make your acquaintance. Most of his tunes are almost conversational in nature, a result of his extensive experience on the bar circuit, where you are required to extend the good-time feeling over several grueling hours--or else.

Manson is no Jono-come-lately. He's been making gutsy, groove-oriented rock for the better part of two decades as a member of the semilegendary New York outfit Joey Miserable and the Worms, and later the Mighty Sweetones. It was somewhere in the middle of Manson's tenure with those rockin' R&B outfits that some high school students in a band called Blues Traveler started showing up to hear him week after week.

"That was the beginning of our association," Manson reminisces, adding a wistful sliver of Spin Doctors trivia for effect: "Back then, the Spin Doctors didn't even exist. Blues Traveler used to let [SD front man] Chris Barron play acoustic guitar in between sets, but nobody ever paid attention to him."

Any PR man worth his weight in hyperbole would be all over Manson's story--how he befriended and granted crucial opening slots to both of the future platinum recording acts that, a decade later, would sell out hundreds of arenas nationwide as co-headliners of the groundbreaking H.O.R.D.E. jam-band festival tours.

In addition, Manson's acoustic ensemble, the Les Ismore Orchestra, provided the public's first glimpse of current rising star Joan "One of Us" Osborne.

Most of Manson's "Tomorrow's Heavies Tonight" series took place in the Nightingale Bar, an intimate watering hole on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that looks and feels more than a bit like Long Wong's in Tempe. Like Wong's, the Nightingale had a large picture window behind the stage that looked out onto a busy street. But instead of carefree ASU students strolling by and peeking in, the view at the Nightingale was of volatile drug busts, homeless people huddling over steam grates, and the occasional derelict knife fight.

Eventually, the window got bricked over and the Worms, whose members would pass a hat around the audience at Nightingale's and often not get it back, started charging the band's sizable following a cover to get in. "We blazed a trail," Manson says slyly. "All across the land, bands looked at one another and said, 'You mean we can charge for this?'"

Bill Barrett, now a writer in Santa Fe, tended bar at "the Gale" from 1987 to 1990. He says the kind of record-company signing frenzy that descended on the famous downtown NYC venue CBGB's during punk's heyday long eluded the Nightingale bands.

"The basic theme of that scene was that it was an equally vital musical movement that was being overlooked," Barrett recalls. "Nightingale's only begins to resemble the CBGB's story if you tack five or ten years onto the time between when the bands started playing there and when they got signed."

Between punk and - Phoenix New Times - November 16, 1995

A native New Yorker who now divides his time between Tesuque, New Mexico,and Italy, Jono Manson has long been a master of the high art of low-rent song craft. But never has he cut as close to the bone as on “Under The Stone”, the title track from his latest self-produced CD. As high and lonesome as anything off the O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack, it kicks off with a pitch-perfect invocation – “World of trouble/ World of worry/ Carry on / carry on” – and proceeds to home in on death with unblinking eyes.

Recounting a hardscrabble life in which “a hundred prayers/ A thousand needles/ Won’t stop the pain,” Manson returns repeatedly to a mantra that makes the ultimate case for cremation: “The spirit won’t visit the bones/ Under the stone.” The song is even more potent in the stripped-down acoustic version included as a bonus track.

Though “Under The Stone” is the album’s crown jewel, it is studded with other gems as well. “Walking Down Your Street” is a back-porch picker that tucks a hard-luck tale inside a happy go-lucky shuffle. “Gunhill Road” celebrates two late, great bass players: Loup Garou’s Jim Gregory, who co-wrote the shit-kickin’ rocker with Neil Thomas; and Blues Traveler’s Bobby Sheehan, who plays on the track and toured with Manson for many years in High Plains Drifter. Both date back to the old New York bar-band scene, invoked as a raucous last-call anthem in “The Night Before The Morning After”.
CREE McCREE - No Depression Magazine

"Summertime," Jono Manson (Independent Release)

If you saw the Kevin Costner film "The Postman," you may remember the tattered folk rock ensemble featured in that film. Jono Manson was the rag-tag front man on guitar, and also composed some of the music for the film. It has been too long since we've heard from Jono here at True Blue, but his newest independent release, "Summertime" let us know that he sure hasn't been idle since we saw him last. The truth is no moss will ever grow on this rolling stone, as he jumps back and forth across the big pond between US and European tours. With a devoted following in Italy, Jono continues to draw new fans to the fold wherever his travels take him. The new release features Jono's signature blend of folk, rock, blues and soul, with infectious grooves of "Jr. Walker Drove the Bus" and "Please Stop Playing That Didgeridoo," culminating in the almost hypnotic strains of the closer "Summertime's Almost Over". Jono Manson continues to deliver his own road-tested and proven brand of soulful roots music in this new collection. We hope to see Jono come our way soon for a live date!
- Ellis Kell

"Live Your Love" - Jono Manson (Independent Release)

This new collection from Jono Manson reels and rocks, serenades the soul, and cuts to the heart of the matter. Strong new compositions like "Alibi," and the title cut "Live Your Love" each take on their own life. This is tough stuff from a stellar songwriter and performer who makes every note and phrase count.
Ellis Kell - Quad Cities Journal / True Blue - 2002/2007

The songs, performed by Jono Manson and John Coinman, are all very good, and fit in perfectly with the mood of the film. I really like the country and western style, and the lyrics appropriately reflect the messages Costner was trying to convey through his film, about the importance of freedom, and families and returning to your roots. And, yes, Kevin Costner does indeed perform a duet with Amy Grant in the last track, but the surprising thing is that he's actually not a bad singer, and he comes out of the experience with his dignity still firmly intact.
- Moviemusic UK

Good songs, good vibrations, good album indeed. Good old Jono!

Jono Manson è un creatore inesauribile di canzoni. Un vero e proprio operaio della musica che nei suoi viaggi tra gli Stati Uniti (dove è nato) e l'Italia (dove vive e lavora per buona parte dell'anno) sforna concerti e scrive brani con apparente semplicità, trovando anche il tempo di produrre altri musicisti (è il caso di Stefano Barotti). Jono, che ha trovato nella valdostana Club de Musique un'etichetta che costantemente lo segue dal 1997, con November torna presentando una serie di canzoni originali che dimostrano la validità del suo melting pot musicale fatto di blues, rhythm'n'blues, rock classico, cantautorato dylaniano e tutto il meglio che il nordamerica abbia potuto produrre. Sarà per la sua nascita newyorchese, per la sua frequentazione di uno stato di frontiera come il New Mexico, per la frequentazione europea, ma quella di Jono Manson è una musica che, pur nella sua caratteristica tipicamente angloamericana, non crea nell'ascoltatore alcuna claustrofobia stilistica. Anzi diverte e stupisce con i suoi cambi di marcia che però non danno mai l'impressione di lasciare una strada e un percorso ben preciso. Surpise, surprise è una canzone rock di prima qualità, How Long Have you Been una ballata con uno sviluppo armonico di grande originalità, If I Was 10000 People ha un ritmo intenso che si sposa con una bella linea melodica. E poi c’è una cover di Bob Dylan: If You Gotta Go, Go Now (che gli appassionati del folk-rock conoscono anche nella versione francese-cajun dei Fairport Convention Si tu dois partir) in una versione “pure rock” che la rende indimenticabile. Finché continua su questa direzione, non saremo mai delusi da questo operaio che ci porta in paradiso.
Michele Manzotti
"IL POPOLO DEL BLUES"
MARCH 2008




Jono Manson writes songs and sings them just like carpenter carves wood: with the same passion and skill.

Jono Manson è un artigiano. La sua voce è come le mani di un falegname o di un ceramista: ha in sè l’esperienza di anni passati a suonare nei club di New York e in giro per il mondo e la capacitá di sapersi plasmare a seconda della musica.

‘November’ è il suo nuovo album solista, registrato in giro per il mondo insieme ai suoi amici musicisti tra i quali il fedele Kevin Trainor alla chitarra elettrica e il nostro Paolo Bonfanti e Pippo Guarnera rispettivamente alla chitarra elettrica e all’hammond.

Il trittico che apre il disco toglie il fiato: ‘If I Was 10,000 People’ rientra in quella speciale categoria di canzoni che rincuora lo spirito dal primo ascolto, seguita da ‘The Fourth Of July’ che tutti i fan di John Mellencamp dovrebbero ascoltare. Menzione a parte spetta a ‘Surprize, Surprize’: una canzone d’amore come da tempo non se ne ascoltavano; grondante verita’ e pathos, un perfetto singolo che potrebbe scalare le classifiche americane facendo gridare al miracolo.

Jono peró non crede ai miracoli, preferisce continuare a suonare, da solo o con una band, non importa. Vuole guardare negli occhi i suoi ascoltatori mentre intona il blues greve di ‘Rolling The Highway’ o tutta la sua sorpresa nel sentirsi di nuovo pronto a dividere le proprie giornate con una compagna in ‘The Unbearable Longness Of Boring’.

In ‘November’ c’è posto anche per il blues, per l’onestá di ammettere che poco è rimasto di ció che rendeva la vita degna di essere vissuta (‘What’s Left’), se non suonare e cantare la propria tristezza, quella tristezza che s’insinua in ognuno di noi a novembre, il mese dei bilanci e delle nuove promesse per un nuovo anno migliore. Jono Manson questo inizio di 2008 lo ha reso giá milgiore con le sue tredici canzoni.
Jacopo Meille
"IL POPOLO DEL BLUES"
MARCH 2008
- Various

Dirty Linen Magazine
Jaime Michaels Wicked Dreams Second Chances [frumdahart fdh 1006 (2003)], Jaime Michaels Angelus [frumdahart fdh 1004 (2002)]
Singer/songwriter Michaels will make you say, well . . . Hmm . . . From the utterly romantic "Lavender Moon" and the in-love-and-in-awe of "Writing Songs Upon the Moon" to the jive of "Honky Red" and heartbreak of "Nobody's Kid," this collection offers romance, longing, catchy tunes, lovely melodies, rock, blues . . . and twists in perspectives, all wrapped in finely crafted stanzas. The lyrics stand alone as pure poetry, but do play the music. Michaels' warm, earnest performance and carefully chosen backup make this CD deeply satisfying, lingering in the heart and on the mind. Angelus offers a roller coaster ride through hope, sadness, humor, despair, and . . . onward till morning. The acclaimed title track is a gentle reminder that we are not in charge: How you fill your heart is all that matters. "Waiting on the Other Shoe" has an irony in the vocal cadence, part Dylan and part Paul Simon. Production, by Jono Manson, is intimate and direct, allowing Michaels' warm, heartfelt vocals to penetrate. Backup varies with each song: a little Dixieland horns on "Get it Right," a toy piano on the waltz-dissonance of "Always Never," mournful pedal steel for "Five Pennies," delightful counterplay with Stefan George's Dobro on "Gris Gris." If you're waiting for some wisdom-dispensing guru, it'll be awhile. But this thoughtful artist will make you think, ponder, and wonder – right along with him. (LJM)

SingOut! review of "wicked dreams second chances" [- Hide]
SingOut! Magazine
"Jaime Michaels' songs are as elusive as smoke and mirrors. Michaels paid his dues opening for Vince Gill, Roseanne Cash, Bonnie Raitt and Delbert McClinton, all the while making his own individualistic mark as an acoustic troubadour touring from California to Key West. His voice raspy with sadness and longing, Michaels pens contemporary tunes where love shines from within like a falling star ("Something to Lean On") or the pain of nothingness is escaped in the tears and gristle in "I Am Only (What I Am)."

Ever the romantic dreamer, Michaels turns heavenward with "Lavender Moon," "Writing Songs on the Moon," and "The Only Song". As fragile as moonbeams, these songs are sparse hymns to love lost and yearned after. Ironically, Michaels' grittiest number is also the sole tune in which he doesn't have a writing hand, "Honky Red" by Murray McLauchlan. Blessed by John Egenes' strong mandolin and lap steel accompaniment, Michaels gets down in the gutter in this mini-ode to a wino. Michaels can kick up the tempo with Jono Manson"s electric guitar for oomph in the boisterous "Anything at All," but this Kerrville New Folk finalist is at his best when his music goes celestial and he leaves woes on terra firma."

Santa Fe Reporter
Foolhardy

Jaime Michaels may seem like the typical singer-songwriter, but with years of tours and performances across the country (and overseas) and five albums to his name, there is nothing usual about him. His new album, Fool, collects 14 sculpted stories that capture snapshots of places and remarkable moments from his life and cleverly disguise them as folk songs. Songs like "Always Never" mingle vaudevillian clinks and clanks with mandolin trills and organs that gently swoon. "Lavender Moon," on the other hand, resembles a subtle bluegrass waltz with beautifully sung harmonies courtesy of singer-songwriter Suzanna Choffel. In fact, the album is peppered with guest appearances by local musicians like Jono Manson, who also produced the album, Chris Ishee on piano and Susan Hyde Holmes on upright bass. Michaels has much to celebrate with the release of Fool. The album is yet another notch on an ever-evolving career. (GG)
STEFANO BAROTTI
Gli ospiti
Club de musique / IRD
+++1/2

Sono passati quasi quattro lunghi anni da quando il cantautore toscano ci aveva stupiti con la sua matura opera prima Uomini in costruzione nella quale erano contenute almeno tre canzoni (Lo spaventapasseri, Uomini in costruzione e Il legno e le corde) che hanno dignità di entrare nella compilation ideale della musica d’autore italiana dell’ultimo decennio. Ora, dopo lunga gestazione, Stefano si presenta con un lavoro che riparte dove finiva il precedente e cioè nel territorio minato di quel cantautorato che sta tra Fossati e De Gregori, riferendosi al quale si rischia di apparire presuntuosi o addirittura irriverenti e comunque spesso chi ci prova rimane invischiato nelle sabbie mobili del “derivato”. Diciamo subito che come per l’album precedente, non è il caso di Barotti al quale personalità non manca per essere comunque originale sia nella voce che nei testi, questo suo recitar cantando, caratteristica anche dei maestri ispiratori, piace ed è funzionale alla trama musicale che oggi, come allora, si avvale della sapiente produzione artistica di quel folletto che rispon - Various

The latest buzz out of Santa Fe is a man named Jono Manson (first name sounds like U2’s Bono last name sounds like Helter Skelter’s Charlie). But he’s not a native.; in the early eighties, Manson and his band, the Worms, galvanized Manhattan’s downtown bar circuit from which acts like the Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler emerged. Recently, he left New York to live in Tesuque, New Mexico, where he’s practically become the Dali Lama of local music.
One horse Town is nothing short of a portable Saturday night. It comes complete with smoking horns, hot players- like the late keyboard god Nicky Hopkins, drummer Ian Wallace and harpist John Popper- and no frills R&B, and all that’s missing is Manson the crowd between songs. Equal parts NRBQ, Asbury Jukes and side four of Exile on Main Street, Manson makes the miles between Santa Fe and the Big Apple melt away. The standout cut is the title track, a poignant, soulful ballad about being a big fish in a small pond. What are you waiting for? Reel him in! -Serene Dominic

- Phoenix New Times

BEST SHOW: This is the big one, the one you’ve stayed awake through this whole column to read- kind of like the Oscars. The envelope please.
And the nominees… For best show of the year… are… Al Green, at Jazz Aspen’s Labor Day Festival; High Plains Drifters at the Double Diamond; Leftover Salmon at the Double Diamond (Dec, 20, with John McEuen sitting in the entire first set); Maceo Parker at Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs; Lyle Lovett at the Wheeler with special guest Sam Bush; Bela Fleck & the Flecktones at the Wheeler with special guest Sam Bush; and the Funky Meters, take your pick of any of the three nights at the Double D in March.

And the winner is… Well, for the longest time it looked like Al Green was going to walk away with the big Stewy. And then the High Plains Drifters came to town and blew the doors off this award. On the second of the two nights, Blues Traveler frontman John Popper sat in with his old New York buddies- Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan, former Spin Doctors guitarist Eric Schenkman, and singer-songwriter Jono Manson- that make up the Drifters, and the heavens opened up.

There has never been such electricity in the Double D and the band responded. In particular, the synergy between Popper and the great Jono Manson was a sight to behold. The musicianship was enormous. Stewy to the High Plains Drifters; make sure y’all get back here.


- The Aspen Times

It’s a long way from the grease-streaked, beer soaked bars of Manhattan’s Lower East Side to the clear, silent vistas of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. But on his major label debut, expatriate New York bar-band veteran Jono Manson serves up a rippling blend of blue-eyed soul, country rock and funked up R&B that manages to link these disparate environments as seamlessly as a steaming bowl of chili-soaked Woolworth’s Frito Pie, which goes down just as smoothly on Manhattan’s 14th Street as it does off the adobe plastered plaza of Santa Fe.

Manson’s move to New Mexico some three years ago freed him up to concentrate on the songs and gravel-voiced vocal style he had honed as a member of New York’s Joey Miserable & the Worms back in the glory days of Second Avenue’s Nightingale Bar- launching pad for the careers of Worms compatriot Joan Osborne and jam-bands-gone- mad Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors.

Traveler’s Chan Kinchla, Bobby Sheehan and John Popper (alongside New York scenesters Ron Sunshine, Howie Wyeth and Joe Flood) all turn in seamless, groove- drenched supporting roles on Almost Home, a car-ready collection of Manson originals and old Worms rockers. The standouts are the country-tinged title cut “One Horse Town”, on which Manson’s bar-roughened East Coast vocal chords bask in the reddish glow of some dusky Parsons-esque harmonies over a sweetly lonesome guitar line.

Cousin Vinny notwithstanding, a hearty slice of New York can make even The Land of Enchantment a little bit more intriguing.
-Kevin Roe

Vol.1, no. 3 SPRING 1996



- No Depression

The latest buzz out of Santa Fe is a man named Jono Manson (first name sounds like U2’s Bono last name sounds like Helter Skelter’s Charlie). But he’s not a native.; in the early eighties, Manson and his band, the Worms, galvanized Manhattan’s downtown bar circuit from which acts like the Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler emerged. Recently, he left New York to live in Tesuque, New Mexico, where he’s practically become the Dali Lama of local music.
One horse Town is nothing short of a portable Saturday night. It comes complete with smoking horns, hot players- like the late keyboard god Nicky Hopkins, drummer Ian Wallace and harpist John Popper- and no frills R&B, and all that’s missing is Manson the crowd between songs. Equal parts NRBQ, Asbury Jukes and side four of Exile on Main Street, Manson makes the miles between Santa Fe and the Big Apple melt away. The standout cut is the title track, a poignant, soulful ballad about being a big fish in a small pond. What are you waiting for? Reel him in! -Serene Dominic

- Phoenix New Times