Sincerity & Authenticity — The Jon Koonce Way
by Ken Thompson - February 2021
Jon Koonce grew up in Washington, D.C, and North Carolina, where he experienced music’s magic and the inspiration to become a musician. During his teen years, he and his family headed out West to Portland, where his Father found new employment, and Jon would pursue his musical ambitions.
It was a long journey that has left Jon rich in life experience and hard-earned wisdom.
By the 1970s and into the ’80s, Koonce was a howling wolf blowing roofs off packed, sweaty clubs, a good- trouble rebel inspired to play with fire and getting it right by doing it wrong. Seemingly tuned in to the same wavelength as Strummer and Springsteen, he left an indelible mark on the Portland scene.
Starting in the Wasted Rangers and then Sleazy Pieces, he took center stage and formed Johnny & the Distractions. They were signed to A&M records, set forth on national tours with the J. Geils Band and Asia, and opened on big stages for a long list of well-known rock stars.
Back at his home-base in Portland, Jon progressed through the years with various project bands and recordings, always a fixture on the thriving club scene.
Jons’ songs are both simple and profound. You sure can dance to it, but there’s more revealed through the words and messages he expresses so poignantly. He’s a rock-n-roll storyteller, and there are rewards for deeper listening.
More recently, Jon released “The Lost Cause” in 2017, a rootsy three- chords- and- the- truth revival of gutsy tunes, recorded old-school in a funky studio with vintage analog equipment, featuring a gang of Portland’s finest musicians.
His last stop in Portland in 2019 was the release of the Koonce-Ross-Fraser album, “New American Blues”; it is terrific and belongs in a list of best-ever Portland albums. It’s excellent to listen with familiar sounds giving tribute to their influences but adding their unique talents to create a fresh contemporary listening experience.
Later in 2019, he returned to North Carolina, now living in Lumberton. Entering a new phase of his life, he published his first book, “Nobody Knows Nuthin’” in January of 2020. It’s filled with downhome stories placed in colorful settings alive with eccentric characters, told in Jon’s playful, wry wit that holds the reader eager for the next sly surprise.
- Name three of the best concerts you saw at the Paramount.
The Tubes “Young and Rich Tour” 1977, Graham Parker & the Rumour, opening for guys that had that did “The Boys are Back in Town” song in 1978.Tom Petty & Heartbreakers 1977 touring on their 2nd LP. David Johannsen opened, post N.Y. Dolls,in a cool punk band, and there were only 800 people there.
2. About those shows, what was most meaningful to you?
Good music always has meaning.
3. You’ve played the Paramount back in 1981, with Johnny & the Distractions. How did that go?
We sold out the room, so it went well. They were a younger crowd, and we had been a bar band playing for drunk adults, so it was new to us.
4. What are three of the best bands from Portland?
The Wipers, Pin & the Hornits’ and The Stumps.
5. Name three favorite figures in the Portland music business.
Terry Currier, Steve Reischman and Mike McMenamin.
6. What were some of the best shows you’ve seen anywhere?
Captain Beefheart at Ken’s Afterglow on 24th & Hawthorne in 1976. James Brown in Phoenix Arizona in 1982. Any night on the J. Geils Band Freeze Frame tour 1982, I watched from off stage.
7. I heard that Johnny & the D’s opened for the band Asia and that you felt the Asia guys didn’t care for your group much. Was that at the Paramount? Please give us the dirt.
We did 30 dates w/ Asia in 1982. All east coast. We represented exactly what Asia and their audience despised. By the end of the tour, their bus said “Asia,” ours read “Not Asia.” It was like playing before a lynch mob in every city. I consider it a badge of honor.
8. What are a few things you like best about Portland?
I made a lot of friends there.
9. On a scale from 1–10, how weird are you, and why?
Who gives a shit?
10. What is the best compliment that you have received?
I can’t remember.
11.What are three books everyone should read?
All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, Bartlett’s Book of Familiar Quotations and The Mad Reader by Roger Price.
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12. Who are your heroes in real life?
My two sons Hank & Gabe.
13. Tell us something most people don’t know about you.
That I’m really ordinary.
14. In your book “Nobody Know’s Nothin’,”you describe an inspiring musical performance witnessed at a Pentecostal Church in Tennessee as “the ground zero source of every kind of music I had ever cared about.” What are some early recording artists that you consider prime contributors to “the Source”?
The music of the black American church is the source of all music except European classical and the minuet.
15. Now that you are an Elder Statesman, what are you rebelling against these days? Have you been getting into any Good Trouble?
I’m a geezer for sure. Wrote a stack of songs on my CDs filled with good trouble. Was raised in a household in enough good trouble to earn an FBI file.
16. Rock -n- Roll’s seeds arrived on slave ships from Africa and developed on plantations in the southern states, where slaves contributed mightily to our nation’s growing economy. Of course, they endured extreme hardship and weren’t paid a cent for their efforts. What are your thoughts about some form of payback or reparations?
I’m all for reparations, but the path there is over my head legally. Returning the publishing rights to the authors of the works you describe is one way.
17. The Koonce/Ross/Fraser album “New American Blues” is one of Portland’s finest musical works. Folks would love to hear you guys play it live, rockband style, in Portland. Would you like to do it someday?
Thank you for the KRF response. The pandemic put the brakes on what was going to be a live show or two. Another show in the future is possible if we don’t drown first.
18. On “New American Blues”, the track “I Won’t Sing Here Anymore” went viral and made a big impression. Who wrote that tune?
Marv Ross wrote the words and music. I sang it and played drums on the other tracks.
19. When did you move to Lumberton, N.C.?
I quit playing regular gigs in Nov. 2016. The next year at age 65, I started collecting SS. For two years, I did just self-promoted shows with my ten-piece band and my trio, The Gas Hogs. I did two shows a year. My wife retired in 2019. We sold our house and went on vacation. Ended up here (Lumberton, NC), bought a little brick house. We’re 80 miles from the coast.
20. I understand that you are working on a new book. Care to share some details?
The next book is again short stories. The narratives are wider.
21. How about music projects. What are you currently working on?
Currently I spend most of my time writing the next book.
22. What are you listening to lately?
Mostly vinyl in mono. Ranging from !st LP’s by The Kinks, The Who, Staple Singers, Howard Tate, also recent CDs like Molotov, Kevin Gordon and Craig Carothers.
23. What is the most inspiring thing happening in music right now?
Local black church gospel bands playing in the parking lot.
24. What’s the best interview question you’ve ever been asked, and what’s your answer today?
I can’t remember.
25.What do you like most about your career?
It’s over.
26. Who is your favorite rebel these days?
An old guy who rides a girl’s bike on my street. With plastic handlebar streamers and a lit cig hanging from his mouth.
27. What’s your advice for the next generation? What do they need to know?
The music industry is hard, and there’s no money in it. But good luck!
