Jon McLurg

Jon McLurg is a singer, songwriter and guitarist based in
Kingston, Ontario. He is active as a solo artist and as
member of several bands.  He is just as happy picking country licks as he is
strumming an ancient Celtic aire, and absorbs influences from a wide
range of Western idioms into his ever-growing catalog of original
material.

Jon is a songwriter who has been quite prolific over the last decade,
writing over 100 songs and releasing nearly 50 of them on 4 albums.
These albums feature deceptively bright and gentle musicality ironically
blended with dark lyrical content. His songs are widely accessible yet
contain musical and lyrical nods to the folk tradition he so much
admires. Those who share his zeal for traditional balladry will agree
that his songs at times border on arcane.  His 5th release is on the
way. 

Since 2005 Jon has performed with Steve Kennedy (Amherst Island) and
Chris Murphy (Perth Road Village). “Crooked Wood” was a project that
brought this trio to the Mariposa Folk Festival and the Festival of the
Islands (Gananoque). Recently, Crooked Wood expanded into Turpin’s Trail
after engrafting the extremely talented Brian Flynn (fiddle) and Noah
St. Amand (stand-up bass). This group is on a verge of releasing its
debut release in March 2016.

Whenever he can Jon loves to sit in with The Swinging Doors, who
specialize in paying homage to the greats of country music with driving
western-swing rhythms, bright guitar licks and straightforward, sincere
vocals. This band is made up of Landon Chatterton, Damien Van Johnson,
Patrick Thompson and Martin Laforest.

Jon is also an avid student of traditional music. He knows and
regularly performs 100s of traditional folk and country songs. He
features many of these at his weekly gig at Musiikki cafe, alongside his
friend Chris Morris.

Though deeply entrenched in the grainy tones of 1920’s and 30’s
records, Jon also greatly admires contemporary artists like Josh Ritter
and Gillian Welch. With a soft spot for the strange and unusual, he is
also a fan of the bizarrely earnest Daniel Johnston. 

Raised on Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Leadbelly, Jon cherishes
the idea that music is a vehicle for community-building and social
change. He is always linking up with like-minded musical wayfarers to
share a song and a story.