**Jonas Conner with special guest Kyle Crownover live at Eddie's Attic!**
Jonas Conner’s music is the sound of scars healing, truth being told, and light overcoming darkness. Hailing from Pittsburgh, TN, the 16-year-old singer, songwriter, and guitarist has weathered the sorts of trials and tribulations that most folks twice his age will never even experience. However, he’s come out stronger on the other side with songs that can resonate across generations.
Amassing tens of millions of streams and attracting Atlantic Records to his corner, the troubadour holds nothing back on his hard-hittingly heartfelt and honest debut EP, Chattanooga Tapes.
“There’s not a lie in one song,” he states. "These are my direct stories, thoughts,, and feelings. I think it all flows together pretty well.”
“These are my direct stories, thoughts, and feelings. I Raised in a town of less than 3,000, the nearest gas station was a 25-minute car ride from the home where Jonas grew up across the street from his grandparents. Nevertheless, music found him in this place. Obsessed with Michael Jackson, he often danced along to videos of the “King of Pop.” He initially tried his hand at singing karaoke at a Mexican restaurant in town, belting along to “Talking to the Moon” by Bruno Mars (at his grandmother’s request). Initially, he split his time between basketball, cross country, and track. However, a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis caused him to step away from sports. For Christmas that year, Grandma gifted Jonas his first guitar.
“That’s when I got really into music,” he recalls.
He taught himself tabs and chord shapes through studying websites like Ultimate Guitar. Under the influence of Tyler Childers, Phoebe Bridgers, and many others, he instantly attracted an audience on social media, posting covers on TikTok and Instagram. Among those viewers, rising star Cameron Whitcomb connected with him via DM. He invited Jonas to a show in Knoxville, and they wound up co-writing “Father In A Bible.” A stark rumination on a fatherless upbringing, the song’s unfiltered storytelling—underlined by wisdom-far-beyond-his-years—resonated with listeners right out of the gate. Thus far, it has gathered over 7.6 million Spotify streams and counting. He maintained this momentum and served up “Peace With Pain,” which explored losing his uncle to addiction. The latter amassed north of 5.4 million Spotify streams, and he inked a deal with Atlantic.
In a burst of inspiration, he crafted Chattanooga Tapes out of a makeshift studio in his basement.
“There was no plan going on,” he says. "We wrote and recorded everything in two days or less. It was really natural.”
He teased the project with “Oh, Appalachia,” while the opener and single “Too Young, Too Dumb” highlighted both his eloquent songcraft and evocative delivery. Softly strummed acoustic guitar murmurs beneath his vocals. The pace picks up as chords ring out over a stomping beat on the world-weary refrain. Just before a wailing guitar solo takes the spotlight, he wonders, “Maybe my heart’s too hard to hold?”
“It’s about feeling exhausted, but you’re also not old enough to really be exhausted,” he notes. “This is what I’m thinking about.”
Then, there’s “33s.” Uplifted by strains of loose slide guitar, he likens a non-committal relationship to a 33 RPM record, going on to lament, “We’re two 33s spinning in and out of speed, can’t seem to get it right.”
“Every time this guy tries to make his relationship work, the girl pushes him away and vice versa,” he reveals. “It’s the feeling of not being able to get the timing right. A ‘33’ is like half a 78 RPM record, so we’re two ‘33s’”.
Ultimately, this is his truth, and it sounds timeless.
“I want the EP to have a vibe where you can listen to the whole thing and drive down a winding road, or you could sit near the water and watch the sunset,” he leaves off. “I’m always learning new things about myself. I’m changing daily. I’m just trying to figure it out. The only thing I know is I want to do music for the rest of my life.”
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