Search - Jon Fox :: Something Real

"Something Real" is the debut album from singer-songwriter Jon Fox. The album was recorded in Spartanburg, S.C. at the venerable Mill Street Recording Studio with engineer Tim Lawter of Marshall Tucker Band fame. The album is an intriguing blend of Modern Southern Rock and singer-songwriting featuring 10 original tracks all written by Jon Fox, and a blistering cover of Steve Earle's Taneytown. The album features an incredible blend of musicians such as Ronald Radford, a two time Acadamy of Country Music Guitar Player of the Year award winner, as well as Fox's own father, Dave Fox who is an esteemed music professor and legendary Jazz improvisor. This unique blend of musicianship and song writing set this album apart from others that carry the singer-songwriter tag with it. On songs such as 'Hollywood Syndrome' and 'West Virginia', Fox tackles much of what he loathes about America. 'Hollywood Syndrome' is an "American Idol protest song", while 'West Virginia' questions why Fox's government spends billions of dollars fighting poverty in foreign countries when it is so rampant in parts of the Appalachians. Fox lived in West Virginia for a short while, and explains the song: "I just wrote a song about what I had seen, which I feel is my job as a writer...if I can make a few people aware of that, then it'd be a good thing." Fox contrasts topics such as war, poverty, and meaningless culture with songs about the things which provide him comfort from the daily grind. 'Something About the West' is Fox's tribute to the wide, open spaces of the West and the sense of freedom they bring. 'Watch the World Go By' has Fox reminiscing about his younger days, when he would spend countless hours on his grandparents' porch, doing exactly as the title says. Finally, 'Where I Belong' is a tribute to "all of the bands and musicians, and in particular the Southern Rock bands and musicians, that have made their life being on the road." Fox notes that there is "nothing as romantic as being on the road." "Something Real" is a fantastic debut from an artist who's spent a great deal of his young life traveling around the country and seeking enrichment from the people who inhabit it. The album was produced by Jon Fox, and with the help of a few of his Southern Rock heroes, stands out as what could be a monumental album at a critical time in music history.