Jon Bartel

PRESS:
Local outlaw singer-songwriter Jon Bartel... is a rasp-voiced troubadour whose dirty tales of woe churn along like an emotional freight train bearing down on your happiness, which will surely be flattened like a stamped penny.
SLO New Times 4/24/08
His music is musty with a hint of back woods twang, but Jon Bartel's smokey lyrics create a foot-tapping melody. Once he starts singing, listeners are transported to an older time.
Mustang Daily, 4/17/08
Upon first listen, singer/songwriter Jon Bartel seems to channel an Old West frontiersman, banjo-plucking his way through simple tales of chain gang inspired heartache and bemoaning love that once- or never- was. Yet, upon further inspection, Bartel's music is an indisputable product of the 20th century. In the storied tradition of many folksters before him, this San Luis Obispo resident is infused with truly American influences: There's the hard drinking rebelliousness of Johnny Cash, the folksy plaintiveness of early Bob Dylan, and the angry sorrow of Elliott Smith. What's more, Bartel's included some of the genre's most characteristic instruments- banjo, harmonica, fiddle- that add an authentic and melancholic twang that's much appreciated by listeners.
-Santa Barbara Independent, 3/13/08
If only Billy Ray Cyrus hadn’t made the phrase 'achy breaky heart' sit like bile in the back of our collective throats. As hokey as it sounds, those words get somewhat close to describing the sound of Jon Bartel, a talented local guitar man whose songs hit at something dark, chilling, and buried somewhere in the canon of the folk and country genres... Bartel can be more aptly compared to Willie Nelson or Hank Williams than anybody falling into the indie rock category.
-The Santa Barbara Independent '06