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The return of Jesse LaMonaca

After almost 15 years, September 4 will see him play new music at The Casbah

Jesse Lamonaca
Jesse Lamonaca

“In the last five years, something shifted where music came back to front and center in my life,” says singer-songwriter Jesse LaMonaca, “and I started writing the songs that I've been waiting to write.” LaMonaca’s last album was with The Dime Novels in 2012, marking a break of about 14 years from releasing new recorded music.

 

In late 2011, it seemed LaMonaca was on the verge of breaking big. He was featured on the Martin Guitars website as a string ambassador (he was playing a Martin DCME acoustic guitar with Martin Lifespan SP strings). His band Jesse LaMonaca and The Dime Novels earned a Best Americana Album nomination at the San Diego Music Awards in their debut year, and won the award in 2012 for The Lament of Tumbleweed Hawk.

 

His background included fronting the band Elroy while living in NYC. His journey as a solo artist began in Philadelphia and has taken him to Sweden and then to the sunny West Coast. After his 2007 arrival in Pacific Beach, he founded his Americana soul outfit, the Dime Novels. “I met the band,” he explained, “we got a San Diego Music Award nomination for Best Americana Album for our debut album, got some local love in the press and on the radio, [and I] sat with Tim Pyles and played a few songs live on FM 94.9, all in just two and a half years. So glad I ended up here. San Diego has been so kind. I am very lucky.”

 

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His debut solo EP Alive on Law St. was released in 2008. In late 2010, having settled in Pacific Beach, LaMonaca completed a self-booked tour of Australia. The trek was financed via donations through kickstarter.com. And then, just like that, he abruptly retired from music. He spent the subsequent years writing, performing, and spending most of his free time camping and moving through the landscapes of the American West — the ocean, the mountains, the desert. Those places found their way into new songs.

 

LaMonaca released two new singles this summer for his tracks "The Way" followed by "Green Flash," in advance of a new EP, Montana Snow, his first new release in over a decade. The EP was recorded in Nashville with longtime friends producer Ben Simonetti and brothers Brandon and James Conway. He calls the sound Western Indie Country Club. The songs are rooted in heartfelt storytelling and emotional honesty, delivered through cinematic Western Americana by a voice that sticks with you, made for windows-down road trips into the golden fading light.

 

“The Way” is currently streaming online. “It's a song about absence and rediscovery,” he says, “about being lost and finding your way home, it opens on a misty river - a swarm of swallows, a grey morning, a soul that gets a little straighter at the bend - and ends with a confession.”


Jesse LaMonaca appears Friday, September 4 at the Casbah for Fools and Friends, on a bill that includes Alex Bergan, Sutton James, Justin Rodriguez, Shelbi Bennett, The Wellsprings, Aly Rowell, C.Gibbs, Francis Blume, Stucky Leigh, Please Ask for Paul, Gayle Skidmore, the Cedar Shakers, Brian Allen White, Kyler J, Natt Wise, and Maddie Alyse.

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Jesse Lamonaca
Jesse Lamonaca

“In the last five years, something shifted where music came back to front and center in my life,” says singer-songwriter Jesse LaMonaca, “and I started writing the songs that I've been waiting to write.” LaMonaca’s last album was with The Dime Novels in 2012, marking a break of about 14 years from releasing new recorded music.

 

In late 2011, it seemed LaMonaca was on the verge of breaking big. He was featured on the Martin Guitars website as a string ambassador (he was playing a Martin DCME acoustic guitar with Martin Lifespan SP strings). His band Jesse LaMonaca and The Dime Novels earned a Best Americana Album nomination at the San Diego Music Awards in their debut year, and won the award in 2012 for The Lament of Tumbleweed Hawk.

 

His background included fronting the band Elroy while living in NYC. His journey as a solo artist began in Philadelphia and has taken him to Sweden and then to the sunny West Coast. After his 2007 arrival in Pacific Beach, he founded his Americana soul outfit, the Dime Novels. “I met the band,” he explained, “we got a San Diego Music Award nomination for Best Americana Album for our debut album, got some local love in the press and on the radio, [and I] sat with Tim Pyles and played a few songs live on FM 94.9, all in just two and a half years. So glad I ended up here. San Diego has been so kind. I am very lucky.”

 

Sponsored
Sponsored

His debut solo EP Alive on Law St. was released in 2008. In late 2010, having settled in Pacific Beach, LaMonaca completed a self-booked tour of Australia. The trek was financed via donations through kickstarter.com. And then, just like that, he abruptly retired from music. He spent the subsequent years writing, performing, and spending most of his free time camping and moving through the landscapes of the American West — the ocean, the mountains, the desert. Those places found their way into new songs.

 

LaMonaca released two new singles this summer for his tracks "The Way" followed by "Green Flash," in advance of a new EP, Montana Snow, his first new release in over a decade. The EP was recorded in Nashville with longtime friends producer Ben Simonetti and brothers Brandon and James Conway. He calls the sound Western Indie Country Club. The songs are rooted in heartfelt storytelling and emotional honesty, delivered through cinematic Western Americana by a voice that sticks with you, made for windows-down road trips into the golden fading light.

 

“The Way” is currently streaming online. “It's a song about absence and rediscovery,” he says, “about being lost and finding your way home, it opens on a misty river - a swarm of swallows, a grey morning, a soul that gets a little straighter at the bend - and ends with a confession.”


Jesse LaMonaca appears Friday, September 4 at the Casbah for Fools and Friends, on a bill that includes Alex Bergan, Sutton James, Justin Rodriguez, Shelbi Bennett, The Wellsprings, Aly Rowell, C.Gibbs, Francis Blume, Stucky Leigh, Please Ask for Paul, Gayle Skidmore, the Cedar Shakers, Brian Allen White, Kyler J, Natt Wise, and Maddie Alyse.

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