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Hometown:
Phoenix, AZ US
Nicknames: "Orchid Fingers", "Pumpkinhead",
"Nicest Guy in Show Biz"
"Jon Rauhouse plays pedal steel guitar the way John
Zorn plays the saxophone. That is, he thoroughly messes with
your head as he takes you on a schizophrenic musical journey."
- Andy Whitman, Paste Magazine
Raised on Easter Island in the Southern Pacific, his destiny
as the next tribal chief was derailed when he was struck on
his ample head by an eleven-pound coconut. His three weeks of
recovery were characterized by feverish rantings about Santo
& Johnny and Speedy & Jimmy and cross-dressing. When
fully recovered, Jon was uncontrollably lured to the rusty pedal
steel guitar that laid for years in the hold of a World War
II cargo plane that had crashed on the wrong side of the island
many decades before. His playing was flawless; technically proficient,
yet totally swashbuckling and swoony. The rest of the islanders
quickly grew tired of his noodling and persistent good nature
and threw him and his instrument into a hastily constructed
out rigger canoe, and cast him from the island. Eventually,
Jon found his way to the brown air that shrouds Phoenix and
started his career as a stand in for Alice Cooper's snake.
The 70's saw Jon being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in
1975. It was his soothing and tropical guitar wizardry that
helped set an amicable tone during the negotiations between
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho to end the Vietnam War. Henry,
being the 20th Century's biggest jackass refused, however, to
share the award three ways. (Just one more reason to hate the
man). His ego bruised, Jon spent the remainder of the decade
defending his enthusiasm for the trend of "streaking."
Currently, he spends his free time justifying the six acres
of lush, green lawn he maintains at his Phoenix hacienda.
The keepers at the Bloodshot asylum first noticed him playing
with the Grievous Angels. A steel guitar player in a rock band??
Hell YES!!!! His hunched over demeanor and the madman gleam
in his eye told us that we had found a kindred spirit.
Since then, Jon has lent his considerable talents to tours and
recordings by Neko Case, Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, Calexico,
the Waco Brothers, and Giant Sand. Let's not forget that the
steel guitar and Hawaiian guitar are HARD to play, and he makes
it look so easy.
He is also revered in Nottingham, England. Seriously. |
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Steel
Guitar Heart Attack
Bloodshot Records
2007 |
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