John Sieger

John Sieger is singer/songwriter in an earlier sense of the word. In other words, before there were singer/songwriters (read James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and less talented adherents baring their souls and exposing their diaries to the cruel light of day), there were acts such as Chuck Berry, Smoky Robinson, Buddy Holly and The Beatles singing songs they wrote. Please, if you don't mind, lump him in with that group of artists who see value in entertainment and think Saturday nights should release a little of the week's built up tensions. John would prefer to be paying an electric guitar (Strat or Dano) when all of this happens, but has been known to hoist an old Gibson Southern Jumbo or Country Western model and perform solo. He made a record for Warner Brothers in 1988 with his band Sem-Twang, called "Salty Tears." It was produced by Mitchell Froom a;long with Jerry Harrison and Chris Thomas (Uunderstudy to George Martin and producer of The Pretenders). It didn't sell a million copies, but it did sort of hint at the coming Alt-Country Insurgent Americana Twang-Fest of the '90s. It also rocked. Before that he had a cool record with the R&B Cadets on Twin Tone records, called "Top Happy". Nick Lowe produced a track for it. He has released a couple of solo records and one with Springfield's finest, The Skeleton's called "Her Country." It features songs written with his long-time collaborator, Michael Feldman, host of Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" His current band project is The Subcontinentals. Please visit their page! It includes his bro, Mike on bass and vocals and Kelli Gonzalez, a very under-rated singer in the Dusty In Memphis mode. The drummer is John Carr, a veteran of several important Milwaukee bands. Together they cover a lot of turf, from John's roots oriented tunes, to some old soul and swing. They even do Mambo Italiano by Patti Page.As a songwriter, John has had some success, with covers by artists ranging from Dwight Yoakam (I Don't Need It Done), Jerry "Talking Head" Harrison (Rev It Up, a hit in Australia!), The BoDeans (The Strangest Kind) Flaco Jimenez (I Found Out). The list includes about twenty artists from all ends of the musical spectrum. John currently produces an occasional song clinic for aspiring writers and has a ProTools studio (Room w/a VU) where he recently finished production on Justin Scott's debut CD "Three Chords and The Truth. The next two projects waiting for a little time and attention are John's next solo CD, "The Shaming Of The True", and the Subs debut, tentaively titled "The Early Years." Both are near completion and scheduled for release this year. Preview "Warm Welcome In A Cold Town" from the "Shaming" sessions and go to the Subs myspace page for a little preview of "The Early Years!"