The Austin 100: J.S. Ondara

By Stephen Thompson

Published March 5, 2019 at 5:01 AM EST

Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya / Minneapolis, Minnesota

Genre: Folk

Why We're Excited: J.S. Ondara grew up in Nairobi, where he obsessed over Neil Young and Nirvana, but lacked the resources to so much as acquire an instrument. Now in his 20s, he's relocated to Minneapolis — where he moved in part due to its connection to Bob Dylan — taught himself to play guitar, dropped out of college and developed his own distinct singing voice, playing style and folk-rock sound. On Tales of America, he sings a story of hope, displacement, wonder, opportunity and disappointment, all from the perspective of a man who's still living it every day.

Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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