Jon Langford

Langford was born in Newport, Wales, the youngest son of Kit Langford and Denis Langford, a Registered Chartered Accountant for Lloyd's Brewery.[4][5] Langford's older brother is science-fiction author and critic David Langford, who lives in Reading, England.[4]

When he was young, Langford would visit his grandparents in Croesyceiliog, whose family friend ran two pubs, the Cambrian Arms and The Six in Hand.[4] He attended Gaer Infants School and Gaer Junior School, then Brynglas Primary School, the Newport High School middle school, before Queen's Hill.[4] In 1972–1973, after playing rugby and football, at the age of 15 Langford decided he liked playing music better. He played a lot of David Bowie and was listening to a lot of Man.[4]

Langford attended art school at University of Leeds as a painter.[6] He left school temporarily when the Mekons were founded, but later went back to college and finished his degree.[4]

Since the mid-1980s, Langford has been one of the leaders in incorporating folk and country music into punk rock. He has released a number of solo recordings as well as recordings with other bands outside of The Mekons, most notably the Waco Brothers, which he co-founded after moving to Chicago in the early 1990s. He is involved with the Chicago-based independent record label Bloodshot.

In a 2010 interview, Langford said his earliest influences were Tom Jones, Slade, T. Rex, The Kinks, Johnny Cash, Man and Black Sabbath.[7]

Langford has produced portraits of country music icons including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. His paintings appear on bottles and other items for the Dogfish Head Brewery,[35] and Few Spirits.

Langford has produced paintings of famous and forgotten figures from the dawn of country music. His artwork is available from the Yard Dog Art Gallery in Austin, TX and LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans, LA.

Nashville Radio, a collection of his artwork and writings, was published in 2006.[36]

For over 10 years, Langford illustrated the comic strip Great Pop Things under the pseudonym Chuck Death with a friend from his hometown, Newport, Wales, Colin B. Morton, who wrote the text.[37] The cartoon strip was published in alternative weekly newspapers in Los Angeles and Chicago, and was a pen-and-ink history of rock-and-roll.[37] An anthology of the best strips was published in a book of the same name.[38]

In 2015, Langford was commissioned by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to paint a series of portraits for its "Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City" exhibition, which opened on 27 March 2015.[39][40] That commission lead to a collaboration[41] between Langford and Hatch Showprint Master Printer Jim Sherraden. Out of this collaboration, their artwork was adapted for the album cover of the 2016 double-LP Trio: Farther Along by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris.

Since 2015, Langford has designed covers for a series of novels by author Jay Spencer Green, including Breakfast at Cannibal Joe's and Ivy Feckett is Looking for Love.

In 2018, Langford designed the cover for "Commercial Suicide Man",[42] a collaborative single by the Nightingales and Vic Godard.

• For several years starting in 2005, Langford co-hosted a weekly radio program called "The Eclectic Company" with Nicholas Tremulis, and occasionally Kelly Hogan, which was broadcast on WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago.[43]
• Langford has contributed to This American Life.[44]

• In 2005, Langford's multimedia music/spoken-word/video performance, The Executioner's Last Songs, premiered at Alverno College, and has been performed in several other cities.
• In January and February 2009, Chicago's Walkabout Theater Company and Collaboraction premiered a stage adaptation of Langford's Goldbrick that featured a live band, two actors and video projections.[45]
• In November and December 2009, The House Theatre of Chicago staged a production of All the Fame of Lofty Deeds, written by rock journalist Mark Guarino and based on Langford's art and 2004 solo album of the same name.[46]
• In November 2018, scored Mark Guarino's play Take Me, produced at Straw Dog Theater Company. Chris Jones, theater critic for The Chicago Tribune stated "if you’re a fan of Langford’s work, you’ll find plenty here to merit a trip to Strawdog: At times, I was tempted to close my eyes, getting lost in the Bowie-esque longing you can find in these lush and potent melodies, true and vital feeling hidden in pastiche."[47]

• Langford has appeared on recordings with Dutch punk band the Ex, The Old 97s, Chip Taylor, Alejandro Escovedo, and has recorded joint albums with Richard Buckner, Kevin Coyne, Kat Ex (Katherina Bornefeld, as KatJonBand),[48][49] Rosie Flores, Roger Knox, Danbert Nobacon, The Sadies, Walter Salas-Humara and Sally Timms.
• Langford also contributed to and worked with Doorika, a defunct performance arts collective based in Chicago and New York City.
• Langford was Castee #00039 in Cynthia Plaster Caster's plaster castings.[50] The piece was named Long Dong Jon Langford.[51]

Langford considers himself "working class socialist."[4] Langford said he became politicized on the death penalty after the execution of John Wayne Gacy.[4]

In 1988, Langford co-produced (with Mark Riley) a Johnny Cash tribute album, 'Til Things are Brighter...,[52] to raise funds for the Terrence Higgins Trust. The album was endorsed and admired by Cash himself who is featured alongside Langford and Riley on its cover.

Langford is an honorary board member of the Chicago-based nonprofit organisation Rock for Kids.

Langford produced The Executioner's Last Songs, Vols. 1,[53] 2, & 3[54] record compilations to benefit charitable organizations working to end the death penalty (Artists Against the Death Penalty, the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project,[55] and the National Coalition To Abolish the Death Penalty). In 2006, Langford was commissioned to develop a performance[56] based on the compilations for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; the show was also performed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Langford is married to architect and jewelry designer, Helen Tsatsos. Tsatsos' jewelry was awarded Macy's "Designer of Distinction" award in 2010 and has a line of pieces that incorporate Langford's artwork.[57] Langford met his wife in 1986 at a party after a gig in her home town of Chicago.[4] They currently live in Chicago and have two children, Jame and Tommy.[58] Jame Langford is a clothing designer and, while in high school, was in a band called the Ungnomes; Tommy is a songwriter and lead singer in a band called Mock Nine.[4]

• Morton, Colin B., Chuck Death, and Greil Marcus. Great Pop Things. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1992. ISBN 978-0-140-17156-3 OCLC 441310470
• Morton, Colin B., and Chuck Death. The Real History of Rock and Roll from Elvis to Oasis. Portland, OR: Verse Chorus Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1-891-24108-6 OCLC 41108753
• Langford, Jon. Nashville Radio: Art, Words and Music. Portland, OR: Verse Chorus Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-891-24119-2 OCLC 65470084
• Langford, Jon, and David Langford. Skull Orchard Revisited: Art, Words & Music. Portland, OR: Verse Chorus Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-891-24130-7 OCLC 670481762

• Jon Langford
• Jon Langford at Bloodshot Records
• Jon Langford at Yard Dog
• Jon Langford at Internet Archive Live Music Archive