Jason Alan Presley is a musician/singer/songwriter currently working in Philadelphia, PA recording solo material and collaborating with Last Ledges. Jason also performs in the mid-Atlantic region and in Oklahoma with the Certified Fools. He’s released two albums in 2024, a solo work entitled “The Name They Gave Me”, his first release under his own name. He also released “Songways”, an album with Last Ledges, a recording project with fellow songwriter John Conley, their third album.
Jason began performing and recording music in 1994 as one of the founding members of the Certified Fools in Stillwater, Oklahoma. They released the “Melvin Moody” album in 1995 and toured up and down the Interstate 35 corridor between Kansas City and Dallas throughout the mid to late nineties. Jason began experimenting with recording his own and other collaborative projects including “The Unorthodoxy” and “The White Globetrotters” around 1997 with a tape recorder and then a Tascam Four-Track. The earliest known recording of this era is “You’re So Fine”.
In 1998, Jason moved to Philadelphia, PA and founded PdogStudios Presents, his recording studio. He recorded two underground demos “The Philadelphia Experiment” and “Media’s Last Days”. These rare demos are remarkably poor quality and nicely exhibit a young artist searching for his sound. They yielded the ultimate underground classic, “The Phone Call”
In 1999, Jason moved to New York City and reunited with Adam Headrick, his fellow guitarist in the Certified Fools. Jason and Adam would go on to found the band Prankstar with lead singer and bassist Mick Tuminello (Later of Lucky Cat). Prankstar was in regular rotation at clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn and released two self-produced records “One” and “Rue de Blackwell” and unbelievably were described by the Village Voice as “radio-ready rock” and “a muscled-up Dave Matthews”.
In the early 2000’s Jason would begin experimenting with various recording personas with Adam Headrick, including Pdog Studios Presents and Backward Collective. Several albums were produced in this era. These recordings produced the classic “Bedlam and Then Some”, a concept album about the storied collegiate rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. The anthemic “Cigarettes, Sausage, Bedlam” captured the spirit of rivalry, and bedlam specifically, like no other with a special “sports talk madness interlude” by Van Eby.
In approximately 2006, Jason and Adam would found the short-lived Blind Bears Blues Band with fellow Okie Ron Oberlander and puppeteer/harmonica-playing vocalist Douglas Strich. The Bears would play in Manhattan three or four times before entering the studio for their first and only album, “Live in the Studio”. These rare recordings have been kept in the vault for reasons not fully understood.
In 2008, Jason moved with his family to Denver CO and continued writing. In 2010, He returned to Philadelphia and Backward Collective released “Cimarron Plaza” and then “What Happened to You?”
Jason joined “Flies in the Kitchen” as a bassist circa 2015 and focused on playing bass for the remainder of the decade. The Flies only released one song, “On the Radio” composed by John Conley who would become Jason’s co-founder of Last Ledges. Unfortunately, despite several years of rumors of a reunion, the Flies were apparently killed by COVID.
The COVD era was an period of creative output and growth for Jason. He rapidly released six lo-fi albums in approximately one and a half years. The Pdog Studios Presents “COVID Era Demonstration Recordings, Vol. 1 - 6” are streaming everywhere.
Last Ledges was founded by Jason and John Conley in 2019 and have released three albums, “Drift Down” at the beginning of 2020, and “Isolene” at the end of 2020. The group’s work was interrupted by COVID, and released their third album, “Songways” in 2024.
