(November 1, 2006 – New York, NY) American heartland singer-songwriter and pianist, Jon McLaughlin, enters another leg of his nationwide tour in Columbia, SC at the University of South Carolina on November 1st. His upcoming first album for Island Records, INDIANA, is due out early next year. Tour dates are currently scheduled through the end of the year – please see itinerary below – including dates in Chicago, New York City, and more.
Jon has been quietly building a strong grass-roots following over the last two years, criss-crossing North America on tour legs with O.A.R., Live, Dave Barnes, Matt Wertz, and (most recently this past summer) Sister Hazel, Cowboy Mouth, Susan Tedeschi, and fellow Island artist Marc Broussard. In addition to venues of every size and description, Jon has appeared before tens of thousands at such major outdoor festivals as Feeling Better Than Everfine (Cleveland), Ann Arbor [Michigan] Summerfest, Waterfest (Oshkosh, WI), Milwaukee Summerfest, Music In The Zoo (Apple Valley, MN), Northwest State College Fest (Archbold, OH), and (two weeks ago) the prestigious Lollapalooza get-together at Grant Park in Chicago.
INDIANA will pay tribute to Jon's hometown of Anderson, Indiana, in its title tune. Due early next year, the new album finds Jon writing with the Matrix, Jamie Houston, Grammy award winner Marcus Hummon, Matthew Gerard, and Kevin Griffin (from Better Than Ezra). The album was produced by Jamie Houston (credits: Santana, Jessica Simpson, Josh Kelley, Macy Gray, The Calling) and Greg Wells (Natasha Bedingfield, Veronicas, OTEP, Rufus Wainwright). The record was mixed by Chris Lord Alge.
Soon after the album's release, Jon will make his silver screen debut in Enchanted, the new Disney animated-and-live comedy starring Idina Menzel, Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams scheduled to open in the summer 2007. Jon will be singing (onscreen) a song written for the movie soundtrack by Ric Wake.
A pianist and songwriter since childhood, influenced by Billy Joel, Elton John and Ben Folds, Jon's passion was sidelined when both wrists were shattered in an accident. He finally rediscovered his muse at the end of high school, and concentrated on honing his skills at Anderson University School of Music. His self-titled 10-song debut album was released in 2004, on the university's record label, Orangehaus – and Jon has been touring throughout the country ever since. Last year he released an 8-song EP titled Songs I Wrote and Later Recorded which has also sold well, holding the #1 spot on awarestore.com.
Visitors to www.myspace.com/jonmclaughlin can currently access four of Jon's tunes from his forthcoming cd: "People," "Perfect," "Praying To the Wrong God" and "Anthem for American Teenagers". Jon has nearly 350,000 plays on his myspace site, and averages over 2,000 plays daily.
Source: http://www6.islandrecords.com/site/artist_bio.php?artist_id=596
