Jon’s musical legacy wasn’t always met with the strongest enthusiasm, “I guarantee I was singing before I could tell ya. I kind of ran from it when I was younger. I remember getting forced to sing in church choirs as a really young kid and then getting solos every single time. It was kind of annoying at first. I was a kid in West Texas . Singing was not quite what a rowdy little boy wants to do. I was all about sports.”
In high school, Jon began to embrace the music within him. He took up the guitar to add to the growing list of instruments he would master, “I love playing guitar and piano. I started playing bass and mandolin. When I was a kid, I was the king of fourth grade fiddle,” he says, “but, I just look silly playing it now.” Even more impressive, he adds, “Not everyone knows this, but I play a mean didgeridoo. The Aussie’s taught me!”
The lure of music began to strum through Jon like a siren’s call as he began to fully realize the scope of his talent. Soon the call became too great and Jon left Amarillo to follow the summons, “I felt something pulling me to Nashville before I knew exactly what it was. I dragged my high school sweetheart and a truck a thousand miles from anything we'd ever known. I scraped and fought to make it through college working a handful of jobs at once along the way.”
Playing and writing the music he defines as, “Honest and real. Country flavored with rock and blues influences,” he paid his dues around Music City .. “As a musician, you find a lot of slammed doors and a lot of "No's" when you're finding your way. I guess I believed they were wrong when they said "no" to me and to the music I was making. Each day, I worked as hard as I could to prove it to them. I’ve worn all the collars you can wear. I dug ditches at a plumbing company. I sold junk and apartments to pay my way through the end of college.”
Eventually, his perseverance began to pay off. “Playing guitar got the attention of a buddy who gave me a job at a financial company. I had several music offers during my journey that didn't sit right with my gut, so I waited. Then, the right one came, and I jumped in. In the last year, the doors have been flung open. I've been working with hit record producers. We recorded a first project with songs I'd written. We've been working the southeast clubs and bars and anyplace with a mike and a stage. And now I can feel the tides turning. This next year will be amazing.”
Jon describes himself as, “a painting, poker playing, movie buffed out, fishing, camping, song writing fool. I want to make a living writing and playing music that moves people and lifts people up!”
“My life has been about not giving up. It's hard work playing smoky bars and clubs for hours and hours, getting people to dance and smile, but it is worth it. Then there is the creative side.... writing a song and having it become part of somebody's life. We're making the soundtrack for a lot of folks’ lives. It's cool when I get an email that says, ‘We played your song at our wedding’, or ‘I listen to "Without Saying" over and over. I feel like that song is about me.’ That's why I’m doing this.” He says, “I think we all just want to make a better life for the people we love. I just wanna make life better for a whole lot of people, one song at a time.”
Jon is currently working for Zavitson Music Publishing. He has had five songs recorded since May by other artists and is working on material for a second project.
Jon sums up the future with his favorite quote, “Life is a photograph, I’m developing from the negatives,” From the outside looking in, though, it appears that Jon Nite’s present is pointing toward the positive.
| written by Debbie DuBois Miller
