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About Jonathan

My name is Jonathan Reynolds and I am a guitarist, vocalist, and most notably, a pedal steel player. As a young kid, I was brought up listening to classic country music by my grandparents. I can remember riding in my grandfather's truck or Jeep with 98.1 FM playing all those old country songs from days gone on. I was always fascinated by those songs because I could feel the heartache and the raw emotion behind it, and the lyrics spoke to me like a sermon on Sunday morning. At age 9, I was given my dad's Fender acoustic guitar to start playing on. The first song I ever learned on guitar (that I remember) was "Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys." From then on, I took on playing guitar. In high school, I would do my homework and then pick up my guitar and play for hours upon hours - sometimes until my fingers bled. When I turned 20, I stumbled upon the Pedal Steel Guitar on YouTube. I watched David Hartley play everything from "Amazing Grace" to "Coal Miner's Daughter." I worked the summer of 2015, playing shows and working, to save up to buy my first pedal steel guitar. From there, I started learning pedal steel under Arnett Mills for the next four years until he passed in January 2020. 

In June 2023, I moved to Nashville to seriously pursue a career in music. I worked gigs downtown and Ubered and doordashed to pay rent. In October of that year, Mike Bourque helped me obtain a subbing gig that landed me my first touring job with Sammy Kershaw. Thanks Mike!

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My Mentor

My Steel Guitar Mentor was Arnett Mills. Arnett was known throughout the east coast as "Mr. Smooth." He was one of the finest players I've ever heard, and it was a privilege to have him as a teacher and mentor. Arnett has backed artists from Tammy Wynette to George Jones to Waylon Jennings and so on. He went home to be with the Lord on January 9, 2020 after a long and courageous battle with cancer.

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