The continuing adventures of Jon Worley
A couple of months ago, Knoxville expatriate Jon Worley checked in after a noticeable absence from the music scene; today, he called about future shows coming up down in the East Tennessee area.
I’ll say this about Mr. Worley — he makes my day whenever he calls. He’s crazy like a fox, and for those who don’t know him, he comes across like a wide-eyed hillbilly version of Hunter S. Thompson, complete with the drug-fried brain. He is, however, quite the opposite — intelligent, crafty, industrious and prone to God-kn0ws-what sort of adventures. It’s always a trip hearing what he’s up to lately.
“I’m just sitting naked on the back porch in Pennsylvania in the middle of a heatwave,” he told me this afternoon before launching into a non-stop commentary of what’s happening in the world of Worley. That includes hooking up with local singer-songwriter Jonathan Sexton, who found himself in a bind when he came up short on some Northeast dates. Worley stepped in to tag-team, booking some dates feature Sexton’s Big Love Choir and Worley’s Cornbred Blues Band. It made for a few nights to be remembered, Worley said.
“We load into Brooklyn and played a show where we were in a 65-capacity room and there was 135 people in there,” he said. “By the time we got done playing, it felt like the paint was going to melt off the walls. It was some of the most existential music I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Our call had to end early because the insurance adjustor showed up to assess damage to Worley’s RV — “Some idiot Jersey housewife hit me doing 85 mph, crushed my bumper and took out my shitter,” he said. “Her car was totalled, though. Looked like something out of ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’ — two cars in, one car out.”
Worley returns to town on July 31 for a show at Relix Variety Theatre, 1208 N. Central St. in Knoxville’s Downtown North neighborhood. It’ll be a full Cornbred show, he said — a six-piece (possibly seven) with the full horn section. Singer-songwriter Duke Brown will open the show at 9 p.m., and the middle set will feature a performance by The Big Wooly, the alter-ego of local rockers Garage DeLuxe. Cover is $5. Worley will also appear on “Homegrown,” the local radio show dedicated to the East Tennessee music scene, on July 21 on WFIV-FM, 105.3; that show is broadcast live from The Disc Exchange on Chapman Highway in Knoxville.