In the Spring of 1998 Jason Webley quit his day job, picked up his accordion, and hopped on a Greyhound bus with the intention of playing in the streets until his money ran out. Seven years, four albums and over a dozen countries later, Webley is still rambling across state lines and howling at the tomato moon. Along the way, Webley has garnered devoted fans from Moscow to Saskatoon, and built up a cult following larger and wilder than any accordion player’s dreams. Best known for his solo performances, Webley appears like a back alley prophet in layers of baggy clothes, a trench coat and an old porkpie hat; he leaps onto stages, window ledges and bartops, feverishly pumping the bellows and stomping out the beat while roaring and whispering in his passionate, gravelly baritone. His music – a mix of gypsy, folk and punk – traverses age and social background, drawing grandparents, children, punks, drunks, and lovers into the fold. As a Seattle Weekly critic observed, "sixteen-year-old Goths, parents with little kids, aging hippies and fellow musicians – all can be seen at his concerts." In truth, Webley’s shows are much more than musical events. Stories, puppet shows and sing-alongs fill in the spaces between songs. In one moment, spellbound by Webley’s lyrical verse and mysterious air, the audience will be so quiet you can hear a feather fall; in the next, the entire room will erupt into a giant tickle fight or a goofy gnome dance. Playful abandon and childlike frivolity permeate the air. It’s contagious. Everyone laughs. Some people cry. And, almost every show ends with the entire audience, swaying arm-in-arm, singing at the top of their lungs. Beyond the accordion, Webley plays a variety of instruments - guitar, piano, and most memorably a plastic vodka bottle full of pennies. With degrees in sound engineering and theater, he produces and records all of his albums himself and builds most of the elaborate props for his shows. The lino-cut prints that adorn his album covers and t-shirts are also carved by his own hand. Well known in Seattle for being a bit of a prankster, Webley once surprised the crew and passengers on a local commuter ferry by leading aboard a group of hundreds of fans dressed as pirates. That same year at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival, Webley was arrested after a zealous crowd pushed him to the top of the International Fountain. Recently, he staged a series of guerilla "musicals" in local supermarkets. Long-time fans have come to anticipate two very special annual performances. For the past five years, around Halloween, Jason Webley has "died," symbolically shedding his stage persona for the winter. At the first death his fans were led into the woods where Webley was stripped, shaved, placed in a coffin and driven away, not to be heard from for six months. In subsequent years he has been carried away by a siren on a boat, left overnight tied to a tree, and swallowed in a maelstrom of balloons. Then every spring, after half a year of silence, Webley has been "reborn." First emerging from a coffin with a new clean-cut look and a completely different repertoire, subsequent births have found him swimming through near-freezing water to a show on a moored cruise ship and emerging from a cocoon like a butterfly. Between the spring and Halloween concerts, Webley keeps an unrelenting tour schedule, playing as many as 150 concerts in six months. In addition to venues across the US and Canada, he travels annually to Europe and Russia (he has become something of a minor celebrity in Moscow). Last year, however, saw a shift in this pattern. During his most recent Halloween concert, Webley reenacted all four of the previous deaths, indicating that a cycle had been completed. A shift can be heard in the music as well. Last spring, Webley released Only Just Beginning, his fourth and purportedly final album. Moving away from the harsh voice and dark moods of his earlier efforts, the new album marks a distinct change, one that favors lush orchestration and a more direct vocal and lyrical approach. The transformation has been lauded by critics and fans alike. San Francisco Weekly writes, "Only Just Beginning is by far Webley’s most sincere and direct work. Some longtime fans might miss his surreal humor and lyrical trickery, but they will find longer-lasting blooms in his humanity." Jason Webley has shared the stage with the Dresden Dolls, the Faint, Damien Jurado, Laura Veirs, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Against Me and the Groovie Ghoulies. He has toured Australia, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, England, the Ukraine and many other countries, and performed in hundreds of venues including CBGBs, the Gilman Street Project, Burning Man and the Glastonbury Festival. | ||
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Visit the Jason Webley web-site | ||
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Other artists from US Robb Benson Kym Tuvim Straw Dogs | ||
Uncommon Ground Past Show Dates | ||
| 2006-07-20 (730 days) | Cubs | |
| Jeff Harms | ||
| Jason Webley | ||
| 2005-08-07 (1077 days) | Andru Bemis | |
| Jason Webley | ||
