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Artist
Jon Langford
12+ albums
Alt-countryamericanachicagoclassic rockbloodshot records
about
Originally the drummer for the punk band The Mekons, formed at Leeds University in 1977, Langford later took up the guitar as other band members left. Since the mid-1980s he has been one of the leaders in incorporating folk and country music into punk rock. Over the years, he has released a number of solo recordings as well as recordings with other bands outside of The Mekons, most notably the Waco Brothers, which he co-founded after moving to Chicago in the early '90s. He is strongly involved with the Chicago-based independent record label Bloodshot. Langford is also a prolific and respected visual artist best known for his striking portraits of country music icons like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. His multimedia music/spoken-word/video performance, "The Executioner's Last Songs," premiered at Alverno College in 2005, and has been performed in several other cities. He also illustrated the comic strip Great Pop Things under the pseudonym Chuck Death. Since 2005 he has been one of the hosts of a weekly radio program, "The Eclectic Company," broadcast on WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago. He's also a regular contributor to This American Life. Among Langford's musical side projects have been the Three Johns (with John Hyatt and John (Phillip) Brennan), who released several albums of drum-machine-fueled punk in the 1980s; the country-punk Waco Brothers (with Dean Schlabowske, Tracey Dear, Alan Doughty, Mark Durante, and Mekons drummer Steve Goulding), who have been reco
