If you’re a local music fan, you’re probably familiar with Lon Eldridge.
He’s the mustachioed time-traveling crooner known for ragtime, blues and swing. So when I tell you Lon Eldrige is working on a new album, you’re probably confident you know what it’ll sound like.
If you guessed ragtime, blues and swing… you’re wrong. Outrageously wrong! In fact, you should be so embarrassed by your own presumptive ignorance that you apologize to Lon for how unfairly you’ve pigeonholed him.
If however you guessed that Lon Eldrige’s new album will be a collection of mostly instrumental songs for the lap steel… then you must be a freakin’ psychic because honestly there’s no way anybody could have seen that coming.
But after I spoke with him about his new album, tentatively titled Steel Away with Lon Eldridge, I realized part of what makes Lon Eldridge Lon Eldridge is his hunger for a new musical obsession.
Lon grew up in Rhea County, about fifteen minutes from Dayton. He was drawn to music at a young age and started playing guitar when he was thirteen. So of course that means he was obsessed with Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
The Beatles helped open his ears to the broader world of music. First 70’s arena rock was revealed to him. Then it was 60’s pop rock and 50’s doo-wop. He kept traveling backwards through musical history until he ended up in the world of blues, ragtime and swing.
That’s what he’s best known for these days. Over his two decades in Chattanooga he’s maintained an impressive calendar of live performances in town and throughout the world. He just recently returned from a tour of Belgium where he played 13 shows – 12 of which were sellouts.
His new lap steel album is still in its early stages. He’s written the songs and recorded demos. He’s in the process of picking a studio and a band to join him, so he’s still a few months away from recording it.
But he’s excited to give audiences in Chattanooga a sneak peek this Thursday April 11th at the Woodshop Listening Room. He will perform a handful of his new songs along with old favorites when he appears on the Woodshop Variety Show along with Alex the Band and Dalton Mills. Doors open at 7, and music starts at 8. There is no cover charge.