Jon Stickley

Jon Stickley has been involved in music in various forms his entire life. While growing up in Durham, NC, he sang in church choir, studied guitar and saxophone, played drums in the highly regarded indy rock band Strunken White, and formed the bluegrass band Crawdad PA with his brother, Jeff Stickley, and banjo player Andy Thorn. While in college at NCSU, Stickley and Thorn founded the Big Fat Gap bluegrass band in Chapel Hill, and then traveled to Colorado to join the seminal, award winning bluegrass band Broke Mountain with Travis Book, Anders Beck and Robin Davis. Broke Mountain was sadly short lived, but the members went on to be part of such acclaimed acts as Greensky Bluegrass, Larry Keel And Natural Bridge, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Leftover Salmon. After Broke Mountain disbanded, Stickley moved to Asheville, NC to join The Biscuit Burners. When founding member, Shannon Whitworth left to start her solo career, Stickley followed and was her primary musical collaborator from 2008-11. During his stint with Whitworth, he played with New Vintage in Raleigh, NC, and recorded his first solo bluegrass record “Lions”, which features Andy Thorn, Russell Johnson (6), and Bobby Britt. In 2011, Stickley joined Asheville’s Town Mountain as their full-time bass player, and played guitar and bass on their album, "Leave The Bottle", produced by Mike Bub and Scott Vestal. In 2012, Stickley left Town Mountain to focus primarily on the Jon Stickley Trio. Since then, Stickley has released two records - “Jon Stickley Trio”, and a second solo album, “Stickley…”. Stickley’s music is primarily based around his 1956 Martin D-18 and it’s bluegrass style, but also embraces all of the musical influences that he and his bandmates have been a part of throughout the years. In addition to leading the Jon Stickley Trio, Stickley is also one of Asheville’s up and coming session players and has produced records for Dehlia Low, Sanctum Sully, Fireside Collective and Tellico.