Jon Lyle Williams

Jon Lyle Williams, came of age in southwest Oklahoma (Texhoma) the land of Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowls, and the very buckle of the Bible Belt, where he both absorbed and expanded on the areas musical roots. " I asked for musical instruments for Christmas when I was 6 or 7. My parents got me a toy organ, a Jr. drum kit, and a harmonica. I started playing trumpet when I was 10, but gave it up a couple of years later when I got my first guitar." Jon Lyle's musical style may not fit squarely into one single genre, but his first inspiration to take up guitar came in the form of Delta Blues. " I ended up with a Robert Johnson album and I was captivated. I had never heard anything like it. I was thirteen at the time and that experience was my initial inspiration for learning guitar." Jon Lyle later found inspiration in another unlikely place. " I took lessons for a few months, mostly riff based TAB, but it was my maternal grandmother that taught me my first chords. I was supposed to ride home on the school bus, but a couple of times a week I would walk to my Grandmother's house who lived a few miles from my school. She would get out her old Harmony brand guitar and a song book with chord charts. My Grandmothers music consisted of popular depression era songs, traditional country, and gospel standards. It's funny because my Grandmother really was an influence on my music. I have this habit when I' m playing of sometimes fretting my guitar with my thumb, and that's one of the things I picked up from her." Jon Lyle's Grandmother wasn't the only family member to influence him musically. " My Great Uncle was a country singer/ songwriter and he also learned the guitar from my Grandmother. His name was Bobby Ammons. He actually gave me my first music lesson when I was about 7. It consisted of making train noises on a harmonica. My paternal grandfather Woodrow Williams loved music, and began writing songs late in life. He passed away just prior to the release of Unsent Letters at the age of 89. I had some recording sessions with him and we recorded some of his songs. The times spent playing music with my grandfather are some of my fondest memories of him. He just loved life and was very passionate about music. I miss him and wish He could have been around for the CD release. Some day I'd like to put together an album consisting of Bobby Ammons/ Woodrow Williams songs." Jon Lyle grew up in a family dynamic where regular church attendance was the house rule. " Growing up in my family you went to Church or else and when I was 14 I started playing in the church orchestra. The music director was a very talented guitarist, a virtual walking encyclopedia of chords, and I picked up alot from playing with him over the next 4 years." Jon Lyle, played in a rapid succession of bands throughout middle school, and high school, and continued finding fresh inspiration in performers like U2, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan, just to name a few. "My motivation gradually began to shift towards writing. Being a good songwriter became more important to me than any other aspect of music." Jon Lyle, continued playing in a wide variety of bands. " I experimented musically. I had to find my niche, or at least what was natural for me. I played in several bands before I played with Daniel, and Mitch. We started playing together and it was pretty unconventional. We had this band we called Borrowing Days and it was this three piece singer/ songwriter thing. The way it worked was we all wrote songs and whoever wrote the song we were performing would sing and play guitar and the other two would play bass and drums. We had this musical chairs thing going on when we performed where we were constantly switching instruments and roles. It was alot of fun, but eventually it came to an end. After that, I gave up music and picked it back up several times. I would find myself writing songs almost accidentally. I could never completely give it up." This was partially attributed to an accident in 2002 after which Jon Lyle lost the use of his right hand. " My hand was broken in two places. The thumb bone was completely detached from the other bones in my hand, and the heel of my palm was broken and the bone was shifted forward. The thumb was pinned back into place and the bones reset. When I began my recovery I couldn't open or close my hand, and I could only move my thumb about a quarter of an inch. It was painfull to play any instrument for a good while. I could play for one or two minutes tops and I then I would have to stop." Jon Lyle was determined and little by little he regained the use of his hand. "I eventually decided to make an album and initially I was going to do it all myself. I invested in some recording equipment and quickly realized that there weren't enough hours in the day. Daniel Tarbox, (percussionist extraordinare), had moved back from Vermont and began recording with me. Mitch Stuckert, was living 100 miles away, but managed to get in on some of the recording sessions and the end result was Unsent Letters."--------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
View Jon Lyle Williams's EPK--------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ..SHOP FOR JON LYLE WILLIAMS MUSIC ON iTUNES------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------REVIEW FROM THE DALLAS OBSERVERJon Lyle Williams Unsent Letters (Self-released) By Darryl Smyers Published: December 6, 2007Subject(s): Jon Lyle Williams Hailing from a small Oklahoma town just north of the Red River, Jon Lyle Williams makes it into the metroplex fairly consistently, performing his stylish country/folk/blues at open mics, coffee houses or just about any place that will let him set down his guitar case.Unsent Letters is his self-financed debut, but Williams has been writing songs (in and out of various bands) for a couple of decades, and that sense of experience and expertise shines through on each and every cut. Williams possesses a high, aching voice, well suited to the soul-searching of his songs. Coming across like a fascinating cross between James Taylor and Tom Waits, Williams' cracking tenor adds weight to his sincere and consistent country-laced songwriting. Backed up by longtime friends Daniel Tarbox and Mitch Stuckert, the dozen cuts on Letters sparkle with flourishes of mandolin, dulcimer and harmonica."Get What You Want," "Worse or Better" and especially "The 13th" are numbers of rare introspection for someone beating around the countryside looking for a place to play. Perhaps it is exactly the struggle that helps Williams define himself and find his place in the widely defined Americana genre. In any case, Unsent Letters is one of those secret little treasures just waiting to be discovered, a mature work produced from raw emotion and the kind of brutal honesty that has always colored the best rural music.