JONNY REID Bio
Jonny Reid born in Ireland has spent the last 8 years in Australia and his self penned debut album “Another Life” hit straight at Number 1 on the iTunes Country chart and number 3 in the all genres Australian charts.
It helps to know that even as he has loved and adopted Australia as his new home, his hometown of Portaferry – a small town on North-East Coast of Ireland – is never far away from his heart.
An idyllic childhood roaming the coastal landscape meant that Reid didn’t wholeheartedly fall in love with music until he was a teenager – but when he did, it hit him big. Some close friends formed a band and needed a member and Reid, with no previous instrumental experience, jumped right in. And thrived…
“At around 17 we were playing the bars around our hometown then up to the big cities shortly after.”
It was good fun and a great grounding, and as the band had also been penning their own tunes from the beginning, Reid himself evolved, picking up an acoustic guitar and started to develop his talents as a performer and songwriter.
The evolution in Reid’s playing and the growth of his confidence soon led to more gigs. Consider also, that from the age of 16 he’d been working for the esteemed George Lowden Guitars as a luthier building handmade acoustics for the likes of Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, and other international artists it was quite literally building instruments by day and playing them by night. He even has his own one of a kind custom made acoustic guitar with the initials “JR” which he uses for all his writing and live performances. Reid left the role after 6 years at the age of 22 to pursue music performance full-time.
Which brings us to Reid’s debut album, Another Life. Getting to the album proper required him to sift through some 200 voice memos, clips and demos, not to mention a further 80 songs in various stages of completion.
The album was recorded with Peter Renzullo at Scudley Records, with help across the oceans from Stephen Smyth, an Irish multi-instrumentalist and producer.
A Nominated finalist for “Male Artist” of the year at the upcoming WA CMA’s it’s been a busy year so far since Jonny Reid released his debut album.
With festival stop offs all over Australia from Blues at Bridgetown to Tamworth Country Music Festival and headline shows in the Uk,Ireland and Switzerland (not to mention opening for acts such as: The Coronas,Ritchie Sambora,The Whistlin Donkeys,Hermitage Green,Nanci Griffith) its been a hell of a journey so far.
“I know there’s a lot of hard work ahead.I recently met with Michael Bono who has recently produced music for the likes of Avril lavigne and blink 182 if you’ll forgive the name dropping and he has invited me to his studio to work on my next release.I’m very excited to let everyone hear the new music I have planned in 2023.”
Bob Gordon
(Rolling Stone Magazine, The Guardian, Q Magazine,)