Jerry Don O'Neal

Think of a laid back, down-home country boy with a great attitude on life...add an abundance of singing, songwriting, and a stage presence with an irresistable personality. Meet Jerry Don O'Neal.

Jerry Don was born May 24th, 1979 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. He grew up in a small Southwest Arkansas town - Kirby, Arkansas - and is accustomed to the simple, down-home country life, where happiness comes natural. Just a couple of minutes with him, and you'll know the feeling too.

Music has been a part of his life since his early teenage years. He received his first guitar from his grandpa "papa", at the age of 10. While he didn't really know what to do with it when he first got it, it sure didn't take him long to learn. He later began singing in church at the age of 15, and within a year had determined that singing and performing was definitely a career goal for him.

Many musical influences help make up his strong, unique style. From Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, and Don Williams to the Everly Brothers and Nickel Back - each has a finely tuned contribution in his performance.

His first real "gig" was touring across the country with a country/southern rock band playing the club and college circuit. This experience greatly increased his desire to pursue a carrer in the music industry.

He is also an accomplished songwriter. Out of the twelve songs on his current CD album, Jerry Don wrote seven of the songs - "That's Just Me", "Be Mine", "Let Her Go", "Kinley Ann", "Read Between the Lines", "Everything", and "When I Close My Eyes"; and was co-writer on two others - "Burnin' Daylight" and "At the Same Time".

In 2006, Jerry Don joined the Army National Guard. His time in the military service provided him an opportunity to find himself and to focus on life, and has proven to be a positive influence on his music. While deployed in Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, his experiences yielded a lot of song writing material. He also gained experience in performance while he was deployed, spending much time performing for the troops in British Compounds, and American Forward Operation Bases.

Accompanying him on his CD "That's Just Me", is a group of musicians that bring over 80 years combined experience in performance and recording. Two of the members were part of a major label recording group in the early 1990's on Mercury Records.

With a strong focus on his live performance and songwriting, much will be heard from this country artist. While working hard to establish himself on the national country music scene, he is content now doing what he loves so much - just playing his music.