New York, New York
Singer-Songwriter, Instrumentalist

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BIOGRAPHY

Brand New Same Old Obsessions is not only the title of Justin Thompson's latest release, but it is also the perfect description for his music -- classic meets modern -- jazz meets pop, and now music lovers are meeting Justin Thompson. Oscar winning actress Marcia Gay Harden recently called him the “rowdy Harry Connick Jr” in TIME Magazine. He won Nashville’s Starving Artist Award for Best Male Artist two years in a row and his debut CD, Tasty Puddin’, was named one of Music City’s top ten CDs of the year by the Nashville Rage.

During his tenure in Nashville, he performed with Katharine Wayland (The Squirrel Nut Zippers), Mark O'Connor, The Nashville Chamber Orchestra, John Hartford, Riders in the Sky, David Grier, Buddy Spicher, Mandy Barnett, Greg Garing, Kathy Chiavola, Annie Sellick, and the Gypsy Hombres. As an Hombre, he was voted “Best Jazz Musician of Nashville” and had two best selling CDs -- Cafe Strut and Django Bells. The latter received critical acclaim from around the country including four stars from Down Beat magazine and the season’s top pick by The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and NPR’s “All Songs Considered.”

Now based out of New York City, Justin is touring venues ranging from festivals such as South By Southwest to black tie affairs including dinner parties for the former prime minister of Canada and Nashville's Swan Ball (alongside Tony Bennett) to college campuses, house concerts, and jazz clubs scattered throughout the United States.

LEVEL

professional

PUBLISHING COMPANY

Jilt Music, I own my own publishing

P.R.O.

ASCAP

INSTRUMENTS

acoustic guitar / electric guitar

I AM INTERESTED IN

in co writing online
in co writing in person
in networking with songwriters
in pitching songs to artist
in pitching songs to tv
in getting a record deal
in getting a publishing deal

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Legends: Bobby Braddock

In Nashville, most successful songwriters have a fairly short run. On hit, one year, two years, five years. Occasionally, we get one whose career approaches the length of a real career or, more often, one who has a few years success, then slips into oblivion, only to emerge again for another brief era of hit-making.

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Legends: Rickie Lee Jones

She speaks softly, not unlike the way she sings --soft, soulful passages, almost like secrets to the closest of friends --punctuated by bursts of exaltation. It's much like the span of emotion in her work, and in her new record, Balm in Gilead, which veers from the pure, naked heartbreak of "Bonfires" to the elation of "Old Enough," to the beautiful "Wild Girl," which celebrates the 21st birthday of her daughter, while simultaneously reflecting on the unchained fervor of her own wild days.

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Legends: Robert Earl Keen

As singer/songwriters go, Robert Earl Keen doesn't seem like the kind of artist who could honestly be accused of sloth. But despite a catalog choked with characters and conversations pulled from a colorful life, he makes that very claim on "Something That I Do," a track where he brags of his ability to not let work get in the way of an otherwise pleasant afternoon.

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Townes Van Zandt: Facets, Faults & Fractures

It's 10 o'clock at night on an abandoned Music Row. The year is 1985. In a third-floor office in an old house that serves as the offices for the Oak Ridge Boys' Silverline/Goldline Music Publishing, Steve Earle brings the chair he's leaning back in down hard, flipping his hair out of his eyes for emphasis.