Jonah McGuire

I grew up in the woods of Southern Illinois, on the border of Saline and Williamson County, surrounded by the quiet beauty of the Shawnee National Forest and the loud sounds of goats and chickens roaming around our property.

Music wasn't ever very far from me. Looking back, it holds a unique continuity in my life that not much else can claim. I remember listening to Zac Brown Band CDs in my dad's truck on the way to the woods and 97.7 Classic Country on the way to school. My mom used to quiz me, "Who's singing this?" When I was 8, my brother gave me my first iPod. I danced around the house for hours listening to the thousands of pirated songs on there.

As I grew older, songwriting became reflexive. I didn't often set out to write songs, I just wrote them because I felt that I needed to. My earliest influences as a songwriter were The Beatles, Jim Croce, and Townes Van Zandt.

At the current stage of my life, my influences have shifted more towards the contemporary. Adrienne Lenker, Jason Isbell, Laura Marling, and Sufjan Stevens all affect my sound heavily.