Jon Band Lloyd This Place CD

Cross a journeyman singer-songwriter with experience sharing stages with major recording artists with some of North Carolina’s finest musicians. Mix the sounds of an intimate worshipful acoustic guitar and piano with modern epic stadium rockers like U2 or Coldplay. Add in a little extra something and you come close to describing the Jon Lloyd Band.With their debut album “This Place” recorded in only one week and the album released in just the first weeks of August, the JLB has been shocked by the overwhelmingly positive reception the album has received so far.“I remember calling up [lead guitarist] Scott and just laughing,” Jon says, “I called up one church to book an opening slot for a band on a major record label. She listened to one track online and while I was on the phone not only booked us for that show but re-booked us again right then and there!” With one single already getting airplay in parts of North Carolina and another already in the pipes, Jon and band realize just how greatly they’ve been blessed so far.“I think it’s because our songs resonate with people on a real, everyday level,” says Jon. “We had a clear vision about what we wanted to achieve and how we wanted our sounds to back up the message. I think our worship album is different from most albums you here because some of our lyrics don’t come from those spiritual mountain peaks, but rather those valleys, those places where we’re on our knees saying “God we need you to help us hold on, to just make it through the day. And some of them are those mountain top—blow the trumpets, thousands of people praising-type anthems as well.”It’s that wide breadth of musical themes that makes “This Place” such a strong album. Released in early August via the bands website and online retailers like iTunes, “This Place” transverses musical spectrum, from the epic stadium rock sounds of opening track “Awake” to the intimate “Help Me Hold On.”Surely the musical diversity comes from the broad-spectrum of musical talent that makes up the JLB. “I got these four guys from ads on the Internet of all places, [and] didn’t know a single one of them when we had our first practices. Of course things were a little awkward at first but then as we kept playing and talking, I came to the realization that we had a really unique group.”The JLB guys, journeymen themselves, sharing stages with talents like Gavin DeGraw and Derek Webb, have found their niche with the band. Lead guitarist Scott Bolin was quick to point out that “I can share my personal music passions with the guys, but then also learn about artists I’ve never heard of as well. It’s like musical cross-pollination which I think has been a huge benefit to the shaping of a sound we think is very universal to today’s society.”The Jon Lloyd Band is currently booking dates for the fall.