Jon Black

Jon Black, a garage-rocking singer-songwriter from Birmingham, was one of several Alabama acts that played the Hangout Festival earlier this month. Black replaced Jerry Jeff Walker (who got stuck in Texas due to weather problems) at the last minute on one of the grand stages.

After his show, American Songwriter talked with Black about Elvis Presley and his current EP project, among other topics.

Any theories on why Jerry Jeff couldn’t make it to the Hangout?

You know there’s already a lot of theories out there but I couldn’t make up anything better than what he has.

We were thinking maybe Mr. Bojangles got sick, the actual Mr. Bojangles, and he had to rush to his side.

Who knows, man? I’m sure it’s a good reason.

But you got the word that you were going to be playing his set?

Yea, we got his time slot. I found that out at 9 am. We were just loading in. We were actually going to play on the Jambase stage, which is a much smaller stage. We had prepared for 30 minutes, and they said, “Oh, by the way, you’re on the second biggest stage and you have to play for an hour.” What I love about music is the spontaneity of it. Even though I try to plan as much as I can, there’s always the ultimate X-factor that you can never account for. But it was fun!

You rocked it. You’re one of a handful of Alabama acts on this festival. You’ve got El Cantador from Mobile, and A.A. Bondy’s from Birmingham. How’s the music scene doing in Birmingham these days?

We have an amazing music scene. I think we have a hidden gem down there. A lot of people don’t know about it, and I think it’s a shame. We have some great clubs: Bottle Tree Café, Workplay Theatre. We have the Alabama Theatre down there. There’s so many great places for music to come through, and we had 100.5, which was this fantastic radio station, but it sadly closed down. We have this huge momentum with these great bands. Wild Sweet Orange is from there. Tons of great local bands, and you can always go see a great local band, and original music too. You know I lived in Charleston, South Carolina, for four years, and original music was a little harder to come by there. There were a lot of cover bands. When we moved to Birmingham, there was an artist community. There were people creating, and it was really sweet to be a part of that.

Jon Black at The Hangout Festival from American Songwriter on Vimeo.

You’re currently in the process of releasing 5 EPs, right?

I just released the first one on April 27th. It’s a year-long process. By the time the next EP releases, the one before it will be free. I wanted to do a big experiment with free music and the Internet. There’s a lot of theories out there that if you give away your music, you’re only going to get bigger, and your people are going to get exposure to that, and I believe that and I wanted to do a long term project with it, ‘cause I can.

One of the songs you played today was “Ghost of Elvis.” Can you tell us how that song came about?

I was in Memphis and I was playing, and it was one of those nights where I could have just walked up there and hit “play” on an iPod and just walked off. No one cared, no one was listening. It was a bad night. I had all these plans to see Memphis because it was the first time I was ever there, and to see the musical history, but I was like, “I’m going home.” I can be home in four hours, I can be in my bed, I can have a good lonely quiet drive, which I think artists need, so I wrote it and kind of had this idea: What would a conversation with Elvis look like right now? How would that sound? My Elvis is optimistic and wanted to tell me to hang in there. That’s basically the gist of the song. It’s been one of my favorite songs, one of the songs that I’m most proud of. I never have a problem putting everything I have into that song.

When did you first start writing songs?

I’ve always written since I was in high school. My dad taught me how to play guitar, introduced me to Bob Dylan, and grades and sports went away. I think I’ve been doing this for a profession for six years now, so I’ve been writing professionally and traveling for that long. It’s been fun. It’s been hard, but it’s been fun. Wouldn’t trade a thing.