Jon Svetkey
Jon has spent the past 20 years as a stay-at-home dad. But back in the 1990s, he headlined at dozens of folk clubs, colleges and coffeehouses throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Club Passim, The Bluebird Cafe, Eddie's Attic, Caffe Lena, Canal Street Tavern, Cafe Carpe, The Blue Moon Coffeehouse at Illinois Wesleyan, Skidmore College, WPI, Brandeis University and Indiana University is just a partial list.
He shared co-bills and "writers-in-the-round" nights with the likes of Kristian Bush, Shawn Mullins, Peirce Pettis, Dar Williams, Jonatha Brooke, Martin Sexton and Carrie Newcomer. He was privileged to open for legendary songwriters like Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, John Wesley Harding, Peter Case, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, Bill Morrissey and David Mallett.
With Ellis Paul, Jim Infantino and Brian Doser, he founded End Construction Productions, the seminal songwriter's collective that is widely regarded as the catalyst for the resurgence of the New England folk scene in the early 1990s. Jon's first two solo albums, this is NOW and yeahyeahyeah, received tons of airplay on folk radio stations, as well as excellent reviews from critics and fans alike. His last solo album, Take A Breath, -- a live-in-one-take, career-up-to-that-moment retrospective of sorts -- was released in 2004.
In 1994, Jon formed THE LOOMERS. They have released five albums of Jon's songs -- Reeling Down A Road (2010), Tomorrow Today (2006), Shine (2004), Simple As That (1998), and Escalation (1997) -- and, despite leading full lives with jobs and children, still manage to gig regularly. Jon's songs have appeared on CBS, Cinemax, The CW, MTV, NBC, PBS, The Dr. Demento Show and several nationally distributed compilation albums. Jon has also sung, or played guitar, on albums by Ellis Paul, Don Conoscenti, and Jim Infantino to drop just a few names. He has written a bunch of songs with folksinger Don White.
These days, Jon sings and plays in an Americana group called THE YELLOW ROOM with his wife, Heather Quay, and his friends Jeff Isen and Jason Redi. And, lastly, he is a member of Jonny Kringle & The Wondaland Band, an annual holiday rock band that delivers money and toys to kids at Children's Hospital.