JONO

JONO McCleery:

I listen to alot of music. But seldom do I care to hear more than one tune by an artist. Usually I can hear their whole bag of tricks in that one tune and don't feel the need to listen any deeper. JONO McCleery of London is one of the latest exceptions to that general rule. His voice is raspy and soulful and unpolished at times, but not in an affective way. You know you're hearing the truth in his unadorned interpretations of his very personal tunes. He sings inside each song, listening, tuning from the inner man to the outerchild to great effect. His lyrics are deeply simplistic and reeks of a 'been there, done that' quality, and on the surface might have you asking, is that it? He gives you sparse arrangements with a simple guitar base and backing harmonic vocals (he's playing and singing them, too), seemingly intentionally (not just because of budget restrictions) so that you're a part of the process, as if your presence as a listener changes his performance, ever so slightly. Of course that can't be, ...these are recordings! But the genius of JONO is they sound like live performances, and I swear to you, different performances with each listen. There's three individual demo discs available: "Bet she does", "Little Rivergirl" and "...a little out of reach" that you can order directly from the man himself via his website, linked through the title above.
He is also on the ever popular, MySpace, musical community at http://www.myspace.com/jonomccleeryuk where you can sample his tunes and drop him a line of appreciation. Why should I share with you my favorites because they all are (honestly), but the three title songs are on myspace and if you get the urge for more, I strongly suggest you pick up the discs, and you might discover exactly which tunes I favor (hint). Each individual tune stands alone as a well crafted short story and is well worth the investment into an artist on the rise.