Welcome to the online home of singer/songwriter Jack Norton!
Oddly, he has two biographies. Feel free to decide which is real, and which is pure hokum.
Jack Norton: The Timeless Troubadour
Singer/songwriter Jack Norton says he was born somewhere in rural Georgia during the summer of 1879 to a family of itinerant workers. He spent his childhood in the Deep South, drifting from town to town, eventually learning how to play the guitar from legendary blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson.
When he was 12, he ran away from home to join the circus and later worked as a banjo player, vocal contortionist, and comedian in a traveling medicine show.
He eventually resurfaced in New Orleans, playing guitar in Jelly Roll Morton’s band. It was here that Norton tried his hand at songwriting, crafting songs which were stolen by Buddy Bolden.
Never one to settle down, Norton moved to New York City and quickly found himself in the heart of Tin Pan Alley, penning hit songs for Al Jolson, Rudy Vallee, and a young Bing Crosby.
Norton recorded his first records for Okeh in Asheville, North Carolina, in the summer of 1925. It was here that he influenced Jimmie Rodgers and Emmett Miller. He has been recording and touring ever since. Throughout the 1930s, Norton drifted from town to town, riding the rails and singing for his supper. During the folk boom of the early 1960s, Norton would influence artists such as Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan.
Today, Jack Norton is celebrating over 100 years as a recording artist. He continues to perform live, touring the world, playing his unique blend of vintage blues, ragtime jazz, and hokum folk.
Jack Norton: The Vaudevillian Virtuoso
Meet Jack Norton, Emmy Award winning singer/songwriter, and musical purveyor of vaudeville blues, ragtime, and vintage Americana folk. He’s been called, “one of the most entertaining acoustic musicians in the Midwest” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune – and was named “Artist of the Year”. Norton has been nominated for numerous Minnesota Music Awards as a folk musician.
Jack’s stated goal is to “corrupt an audience with pleasure”. For the past two decades he has been doing just that by quietly producing a body of work that includes dozens of albums, films, books and nearly 250 live shows a year in Europe, Canada and the United States. Norton has performed at some of the largest and most well respected venues in the world including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Oddball ukulele legend Tiny Tim hailed Norton as “the greatest entertainer I have ever seen!”
Norton has shared the stage with such greats as Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Alejandro Escovedo, Greg Brown, Dave Van Ronk, Leon Redbone and Faith Hill.
Jack plays what the St. Paul Pioneer Press describes as “fresh and refreshing blend of absolutely original folk, country blues and ragtimey jazz.” Billboard Magazine hailed Jack as “an artist to watch…certainly deserving of far greater recognition!”
He’s inspired by the numerous traveling vaudeville medicine shows and minstrel troupes of the 1920s and the bluesy jazz of the 1930s and 40s. Jack references everyone from Emmett Miller and Al Jolson to Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson or Blind Willie McTell. Performing original songs, hokum blues ballads and forgotten Tin Pan Alley gems of the vaudeville era, Norton is highly entertaining and has been called a “one man jug band” as he accompanies himself on his trusty antique parlor guitar, a vintage ukulele, an old stomp box, jug, kazoo-a-phone, harmonicas and his mouth trumpet.
Recently, Jack toured Europe as a solo artist to promote his latest album. His hokum blues and vaudeville folk music is a great fit for music festivals, fairs, performing arts centers, theaters, listening rooms, house concerts, folk music clubs, bars, breweries and wineries.
Fully costumed, clean, and wonderfully humorous, Jack’s wholesome performances are an authentic throwback to a simpler time and bygone era.
For booking information, please contact Jack’s agent Ethan Williams today. Be sure to follow Jack on YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, X (Twitter), and Facebook.
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Heigh-ho, everybody, heigh-ho! Join my mailing list today for the latest albums, tour dates, and more fun! – Cheers, Jack