Jon Dee Graham is a guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas. A former member of the True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo, Graham is the only musician ever to be inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times.
Jon Dee Graham is most well known for his solo work, including the critically acclaimed records "Escape from Monster Island", "Hooray For The Moon", and "Full". He is also well known for his tenure in The Skunks, Austin's very first punk band, and roots-rock pioneers The True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo. Jon Dee has also played guitar with acts such as John Doe (X, The Knitters), Exene Cervenka (X), Michelle Shocked, Alejandro Escovedo, Kelly Willis, and The Gourds and has had his songs covered by many artists, including Patty Smythe, Patty Griffin and James McMurtry.
“Gruff but well-read, quiet but dancing circles on one heel in the kitchen, de la Cour is the enigma, the lone picker, the troubadour, the drifter, the one man band.” (The American Music Project)
Ben de la Cour has lived a different kind of life. After growing up in Brooklyn, he set out to see the world as an amateur boxer, bartender, and agricultural worker. He lived in Havana, Paris, London, Los Angeles, and New Orleans before finally settling in Nashville, and it was at Nashville’s Greenland Sound that de la Cour recorded the eleven songs of perfectly crafted Americanoir that make up his second album “Midnight in Havana”.
“Ben de la Cour’s songs are brimming with urgent authenticity. There is thematic hardness and vulnerability throughout, but what distinguishes de la Cour’s songs from lesser guitar-and-anguished-vocals hacks is the raw humanity of his delivery and the potency of his way with words.” (No Depression)
Influenced by giants such as Townes Van Zandt and Warren Zevon as much as by bands like Slayer, Nick Cave and The Gun Club, Ben de la Cour has somehow managed to meld all of these influences naturally into his Americanoir canon, delivering a uniquely modern, haunting and darkly humorous sound that is all his own. Songs filled with tales of substance abuse, murder and mental illness sit in perfect juxtaposition with playful lightheartedness and an ever-present glimmer of hope. However, upon closer inspection, darkness almost always wins…an unlikely hero, but one that suits de la Cour.
“Ben de la Cour bleeds the songs he sings. Within the understated instrumentation and de la Cour’s baritone voice lie stark, haunting songscapes: moody recollections that recount the journey of a life that is not always pretty, but proves better than one of mundane predictability.” (Turnstyled, Junkpiled)
In May of 2016, de la Cour was selected as one of six winners of the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival “New Folk” competition.
“Ben de la Cour is a folk musician with the songwriting acumen of a young Nick Cave and the lyrical wisdom of a vitriolic Leonard Cohen. His songs are stark, melancholic and packed with emotion and will send you collectively weak at the knees.” (Fresh Deer Meat)