Jason Webley is an American musician known for his fusion of folk, experimental, and alternative music. Webley plays the guitar and accordion, sometimes providing percussion by stomping or shaking a plastic vodka bottle filled with coins. Webley began his career performing solo, but has collaborated with a wide range of artists. He has also organized several commemorative concerts and events memorializing everything from tragedies in his hometown of Everett, Washington, to tomatoes.
Early life
Webley is originally from Everett, Washington.[1] In high school, Webley played in a punk rock band called Moral Minority. He picked up the accordion in 1996 in his last year in college at the University of Washington when he was part of a performance of Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and wrote a couple of songs for the play on the accordion.[2] He later recalled, "I was just a geeky kid; accordion came later. It's since playing accordion that I've become cool. I used to be a geek with an electric guitar. I had a guitar and played in punky bands and I had a computer. I sequenced stuff. I was much geekier."[3]
Career
In the spring of 1998 Webley quit his day job and began busking.[4] Later that year he recorded the album Viaje in his kitchen and independently released it. In 1999, Webley released Against the Night, which would become one of his most popular albums. Against the Night includes "Last Song" and "Dance While the Sky Crashes Down," which would be staples of his live performances for the next two decades.
Webley's first four albums were released or re-released by Springman Records, but he now owns his own record label, Eleven Records, and sells his merchandise via website or at concerts.
Webley's music and live performances reflect his eclectic personality. Webley has a fascination with the number 11.[9] References to the number can be found throughout his discography. He also performed a special commemorative concert on November 11, 2011.
Webley was also once known for incorporating vegetables into his performances.[10] He once owned a late 1990s model Toyota Corolla that had been converted into a giant tomato. It was painted red, and had a green fiberglass stem attached to the roof of the car (until the stem was stolen).[11] He reported at a concert that his beloved Toyota had "passed away" around January 18, 2011. Webley's vegetable fixation is no longer a main element of his live performances.
From 2000 to 2004 Webley pretended to die every Halloween only to be born in the spring.[6]
In May 2014 Jason Webley performed the songs 'Promise To The Moon' as well as 'These and More Than These' by Joseph Fink; while doing a series of live shows with the show Welcome to Night Vale, as well as writing an original song as the character Louie Blasco on the podcast.[12]
In 2011, Webley scaled back his touring schedule and started focusing more on other projects. He still performs annually at some venues such as the Oregon Country Fair.
Monsters of Accordion
Webley organized the Monsters of Accordion tour, an all-accordion extravaganza that took place on the West Coast.[13] The tour came together when Webley was invited to play at an accordion shop in Oakland, and met two Bay Area accordionists, Daniel Ari and Aaron Seeman. They decided to do an accordion-only tour, which was the first Monsters of Accordion.[14] The tour has since featured such accordionists as Corn Mo, Geoff Berner, Amy Denio, Mark Growden, (former Gogol Bordello member) Stevhen Iancu, and Eric Stern (frontman of Vagabond Opera).
Margaret
In 2014 Webley released, Margaret, a collaborative album commemorating Margaret Rucker, the daughter of a prominent Everett family. The album was sparked by Webley's fascination with Rucker's pyramidal tomb and his friend's discovery of one of Rucker's scrapbooks in a California dumpster.[15][16] The album was released along with a book and six live shows were performed up and down the West Coast. The project was funded via a Kickstarter Campaign.[17]
One Hundred Years Ago Tomorrow
In 2016 Webley once again turned to crowdfunding to co-create an album centered on Everett's history. This time the focus was the Everett Massacre. The album commemorated the centennial of the massacre. It was performed live at the historic Everett Theater one day before the centennial (hence the title, One Hundred Years Ago Tomorrow).[18][19]
Flotsam River Circus
In 2017, Webley began organizing a floating circus on the Willamette River. After his father became ill the project was delayed for two years. In the summer of 2019, the Flotsam River Circus finally set sail from Corvallis, Oregon, after performing at the Oregon Country Fair. Shows were performed at waterfront parks with a homemade barge serving as the stage.[20][21] In August 2021 the circus set sail again with a series of performances in the greater Seattle area.[22] During the summer of 2022, the circus floated down the San Joaquin River in Northern California performing in towns such as Walnut Grove and Bethel Island as well as cities like Sacramento, Oakland, and San Francisco.[23][24]
In August and September 2023, Flotsam performed more than 30 shows along the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Louis. The troupe put on free performances across 5 states, attracting crowds hundreds or even thousands to waterfront parks, marinas, and boat ramps. Unlike some previous performances, most shows were sanctioned by local governments. The tour received significant community support and coverage in local media. Webley cited the works of Mark Twain as an inspiration for the project.[25][26][27][28][29]
Webley has announced that there will be a series of 11 collaborative projects between him and his songwriter friends, and each recording will be limited to 1,111 numbered copies. He has thus far collaborated with Jay Thompson, Andru Bemis, Reverend Peyton, and Sxip Shirey.[30]
After a December 2007 concert at Hampshire College, Webley and Hampshire student Professor Science collaborated on a song about mittens known as "The Mitten Opera". Webley repeated this tradition the following two nights, first after a concert at Bard College, where he and a group of students collaborated on a song called "Clown Car to Mulberry", then at Sarah Lawrence College, where Webley and almost the entire audience performed the hardcore punk-inspired "Bad Milk". All three songs are available on YouTube.
At a concert at The Saint in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in January 2009, Webley was joined on stage by Calamity Menagerie to perform "Ways To Love" and "Quite Contrary" – a song he rarely plays at live shows.
In December 2011, Webley announced the intention to make his back catalogue available as paid downloads online on the website BandCamp.
In February 2018, Webley announced the release of the new Amanda Palmer music video "Judy Blume" which he directed.[31]
