Jon Svetkey

• Folk
• Singer/Songwriter

Back in the 1990s, before his current job as stay-at-home dad to two beautiful children, Jon headlined at dozens of folk clubs, colleges and coffeehouses throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Club Passim, The Bluebird Cafe, Eddie’s Attic, Caffe Lena, Canal Street Tavern, Cafe Carpe, The Blue Moon Coffeehouse at Illinois Wesleyan, Skidmore College, WPI, Brandeis University and Indiana University is just a partial list.

He shared co-bills and “writers-in-the-round” nights with the likes of Kristian Bush, Shawn Mullins, Peirce Pettis, Dar Williams, Jonatha Brooke, Martin Sexton and Carrie Newcomer. He was privileged to open for legendary songwriters like Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, John Wesley Harding, Peter Case, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler and David Mallett.

With Ellis Paul, Jim Infantino and Brian Doser, he founded End Construction Productions, the seminal songwriter’s collective that is widely regarded as the catalyst for the resurgence of the New England folk scene in the early 1990s. Jon’s first two solo albums, this is NOW and yeahyeahyeah, received tons of airplay on folk radio stations, as well as excellent reviews from critics and fans alike. His last solo album, Take A Breath, — a live-in-one-take, career-up-to-that-moment retrospective of sorts — was released in 2004.

Jon has also sung, or played guitar, on albums by Ellis Paul, Don Conoscenti, and Jim Infantino to drop just a few names. He has written a bunch of songs with folksinger Don White. He also sings in a folk duo called THE YELLOW ROOM with his wife, Heather Quay.