by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Seattle-based musician Jason Webley said he's a bigger deal in Russia than in the United States.
"I've been going over there for about six years, and people there really like me, and my promoters do a good job," Webley said. "More people come out to see me in Russia than anywhere else that I play."
Webley's main gig is singing solo with his accordion and guitar, but he is traveling with a band - the Jason Webley Quartet - to promote his new album, The Cost of Living. The other three members add stand-up bass, viola and drums. The band will play Monday at the Curio, at 1451 12th Street N.W.
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"They all have solo projects and will be playing their individual music before me, and then we'll play together," he said.
Webley's music has a Parisian feel mixed with an Eastern European folk sound.
When he's performing, he engages the audience.
"I like to make people feel like they're part of something when I'm playing," Webley said. "I talk to the audience and pay attention to them, rather then pretending they don't exist."
He built a tiny wooden house and photographed it for his album cover. The fire and water surrounding the house are made of stained glass, which his parents helped him build.
"They built stained-glass windows (for a living)," he said. "It didn't work out economically, so they became real estate agents, but I often still think of them as stained-glass windows makers."
Webley said he started his life as a performer in 1998 when he quit his day job as a studio engineer to play his accordion on the streets.
"I didn't know it would pay off," he said. "I had some money in the bank, and I thought I'd do that until it ran out. I also thought I was going to go crazy, and I thought it was something I could do."
He's somewhat known in Seattle as a prankster, he said.
"I had a bunch of people dress up as pirates and we took over a ferry," he said.
He also ends some of his shows with a parade around the city, acting as troubadour to the marching fans from the show.
Page Bancroft, co-organizer of the Curio, said she met him two years ago in Albuquerque and saw him recently at the Verb art space.
"I'm excited to hear him play at the Curio," Bancroft said. "I think our audience will enjoy it. He's excellent at what he does."
Jason Webley Quartet
Monday
The Curio
1451 12th Street N.W.
8 p.m.
$6
