“I’ve always been happiest,” he says, “when I’m exploring all kinds of creativity.”

You might recognize Jason Mundok from one of his solo performances at various places around Lancaster County. Maybe you recognize him as a member of the duo Fire in the Glen. Or as part of the band Living Fables. Perhaps you’ve been to one of the intimate Wood Stove House Concerts that he has held in the house he shares with his wife, Susanne. It could be that you have heard his podcast, Around the Wood Stove, where he talks to creative people in an attempt to inform and encourage other creative people. As you can see Jason Mundok is an active guy. And that’s the way he likes it. “I’ve always been happiest,” he says, “when I’m exploring all kinds of creativity.”

After graduating from college in 1993 and spending a few months in Florida, Jason moved to Nashville, where he began to pursue a career in music. Strangely enough, given that his current music draws so heavily on the influence of folk music, the music he was playing at that time was heavily influenced by British bands such as The Cure and the Smiths. Once he got to Nashville, he says, “I got in bands. I thought that’s what you do to try and make it. You get in bands and you play.” Playing bass in various bands during his six years in Nashville, he took advantage of whatever opportunities came his way. “Sometimes the bands I was in would be asked to back up another performer,” says Jason. “They might ask us to help them lay down demos in a studio, so playing in bands led to some session work.”

It was also in Nashville that Jason began casting a wide creative net. In addition to his performing, he published a zine, recorded other performers using his home studio gear and had an independent record label. In 1999, after meeting and marrying his wife, Susanne, Jason (along with Susanne) left Nashville took an opportunity to tour Ireland with a singer/guitarist he had met. Although he enjoyed the experience, he came back “burned out and broke.” It was at this point that he decided, having grown up in western Pennsylvania, to give the eastern part of the state a try.

At first he laid low and concentrated on building a new career (he currently works as a software developer), still burned out from the Ireland experience. But gradually he began to make contact and play with the members of the folk group, Woodsong. “At the time, it was just right for me,” he says. “We rehearsed every week, in a very laid back way, and played a couple of benefit shows a year.” It was working with Woodsong that he became exposed to folk music and began to perform in that style. Eventually the desire to perform more grew and he joined the group Living Fables, formed the duo Fire in the Glen and, increasingly, played more and more solo shows.

He has recorded albums with Living Fables and Fire in the Glen, as well as solo, but is currently excited about his latest solo release, the EP The Other Side. Recorded in Ohio with an old friend, Pat Buzzard, and adorned with cover art by his wife Susanne (who is an artist), Jason says that “this represents where I am right now and gives people a good idea of who I am and what I do.”

And he has gradually expanding his activities again. In addition to his performing, solo and with Fire in the Glen, Jason has begun recording a podcast—Around the Wood Stove—in his home studio, the Oil Tank. He has been recording other local artists in his studio and for the past three years he and Susanne have been hosting house shows under the banner, Wood Stove House Concerts.

He has made many of his recording projects through the years (along with some unreleased ones) available via his two websites, www.jmundok.com www.jmundok.com and www.woodstovehouse.com. According to Jason, “The JMundok site is basically a billboard for my performing, while the Wood Stove House site is more varied. It contains the podcast, some free downloads, information about the house concerts and things like that.”

Still a relatively young man, Jason Mundok hasn’t let the grass grow under his feet and, no doubt, will continue to find creative ways to fill up his days and weeks and months and years for the foreseeable future.

BR~