Biography
Jon Fromer is an award-winning singer/songwriter whose music is a special blend of folk, blues and country that has been at the center of movements for peace and social change in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades. Jon is known for his rich soulful voice, rhythmic guitar style, and poetic lyrics that capture the human condition.
Jon has just released a new CD “Gonna Take Us All” that speaks to the power of working together. Pete Seeger’s response was “It’s a great record! I hope many people start singing your songs.”
From songs to unite us and songs of love to songs of homelessness and war, “Gonna Take Us All” highlights Jon’s powerful vocals complimented by his bluesy guitar style. His CD is enriched by the talents of a number of gifted musicians from Mark Russo, saxophone player with the Doobie Brothers, to the keyboard parts by Jon’s nephew, Reed Fromer, who also arranged and produced the CD.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area Jon performs to packed houses in cities around the country and in Europe. In June 2008 he was a national finalist performing in the Music To Life competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. Judges included Judy Collins, Tom Paxton and Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey from Peter, Paul and Mary. Jon has won songwriting competitions from the Northern California Songwriters’ Association and the Labor Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C.
He plays for devoted fans in concert halls and clubs, but he also lifts spirits in union halls, churches and, over the years, at thousands of picket lines, marches and rallies going back to his participation as a teenager in the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama for voting rights.
Every November, Jon helps lead and organize the music for the annual mass demonstrations of more than 20,000 protesters outside the School of The Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Graduates trained at the School of the Americas have committed some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. The struggle to close the SOA has been called “The most singing movement since the Civil Rights Era.”
Some of Jon’s songs have become anthems for the movement. His song “We Do The Work” became the title song for a long running PBS series of the same name and also is included in the Smithsonian’s latest release “Classic Labor Songs.” It was the title song for a CD Jon released in 1998.
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