earth to jonathan

Jonathan Howard Kemp writes songs and plays guitar, drums, and some other instruments. He grew up in suburban Bexley, Ohio but was never far from his family’s central Pennsylvanian roots. He began studying piano because of his grandmother, a piano teacher and organist who had played viola with the Harrisburg Symphony in the 1930s. Her father, Jonathan’s great-grandfather, was a choir director at a reformatory-era prison. He took his wife on a tour of choir programs at other prisons for their honeymoon.

Jonathan has worn many hats including jazz trombonist, men’s choir baritone, musical theater kid, punk bassist, singer-songwriter, and lead guitarist in several roots/country bands. This has led him to perform in an oddly wide range of venues that includes Big Ten football stadiums, village churches in Guadeloupe, New York City parks, music festivals, and dive bars.

Jonathan has been based in New York City since he was 22, playing guitar with Irv Irving, The Morning Pages, Black Magic Piano, The Lord of Thunder & the Hot Pony Riders, Chewy Blue, Shredded Poets, The Electric Bretheren, Winthorpe, and his own solo projects.

Recently he has been producing his own creations, playing all the instruments. He has self-released three full length albums, including The Eye Of A Camel in 2013 and Astronaut Ice Cream Sundae in 2016.

His most recent album, Matches, was released in August of 2022.