Up and coming: Jon Regen, where have you been hiding?
Tiny bit of back-story, skip to the next paragraph to get the interesting part of this post. As some of you might know, I have another web site/blog. That one, makes money. Almost enough to live on. This one (RMD) makes about enough to buy a cup of coffee once a week. I do it purely for fun, and to spread what I think is good music. With all that said, there really is a huge non-financial benefit to running a rock music blog - musicians, promoters, managers and PR folks contact you all the time. They offer free CD’s, concert tickets, bribes of all sorts. My attitude has always been that if I like the music, I’ll write about it - regardless of the bribe. If I don’t like the music, I say thanks but no thanks. Kind of a “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” deal. So when Jon Regen sent me an email, and I went to his page and read “jazz-inspired pop” I immediately thought ‘yeah I’m not going to like this’. Damn I was wrong.
Before you go to much farther, head over to Jon Regens music page and give him a listen (I’m not 100% sure but it looks like his entire latest album is available to stream/download for free). After you listen to some of the music, you’ll understand exactly why Andy Summers of The Police, Martha Wainwright, Kamilla Thompson, Jimmy Vivino, and Julia Kent (Norah Jones, Antony & The Johnsons) all worked with him on Let It Go (his latest album). In fact I’m digging his music so much that if you review my Last.FM history, you’ll notice that I have the title track, Let It Go, on repeat.
Read more about Jon in this New York Times article, or visit his MySpace page.
Jon Regen Tour Dates
19 Apr 2008 UNDERGROUND CONCERTS ,Maplewood, New Jersey
5 May 2008 VOCALIA FESTIVAL, Udine, Pordenone
13 May 2008 INGOLSTADT BLUES FESTIVAL, Ingolstadt
14 May 2008 NU SPIRIT, Bratislava
15 May 2008 BIRDLAND, Vienna
22 May 2008 ABBABULA FESTIVAL, Sassari
31 May 2008 LA NOTTE BIANCA UNIVERSITARIA, Cesena
