Different genres of music from Country, Cajun, Rock, and Music for Television and Film

Jonna Garrett

Musician/Songwriter, Jonna Garrett is an eclectic writer, possessing the ability to move from genre to genre with ease. Songs she has written or co-written fall into many musical categories, appealing to many different listeners.

Jonna started writing songs on the piano when she was 12 years old. Picking up the violin in middle school, she quickly picked up on techniques of the instrument while enjoying the classical music. In high school she was in her first band, pulling away from the sheet music to play with peers that were writing original music which was on the folk/rock side. The band found itself playing for college students and sharing the stage with John Prine, and Gentle Giant. Sitting in on recording sessions became another device for maintaining the creative outlet and her first true love of music.
Joining other local musicians to play different styles such as country music, she found herself opening for major artists at a Houston hotspot in the early 90’s. Openers included Roseanne Cash, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Shawn Phillips, Shake Russell, and Shelby Lynne.

In the mid 90’s, Jonna joined up with five females to start a progressive country band, Cowboy’s Nightmare. CN started out playing the local bars and quickly became a local favorite. Playing some copies, the girls incorporated their originals. Writing and recording their songs, they hooked up with a promoter in Europe who introduced some of Cowboy’s Nightmare songs which began getting airplay. Two of the songs landed in the number one spot on the Independent Country Charts; one song Jonna co-wrote, Fool’s Gold, maintained the number one spot for four weeks in a row. Cowboy’s Nightmare was receiving plenty of attention abroad and locally. The band shared the stage with groups such as Diamond Rio, LeeAnn Womack, and Eddie Money and traveled to Switzerland to play in a festival in Zurich; however, performing at a festival outside of Houston, the group had the opportunity to open for the legendary Willie Nelson. Coincidently enough, another fair the group played at just outside of Houston hooked them up to a new fan who introduced them to Willie personally. Willie ended up calling and asking the group to come and play at Farm Aid 2000. Attending Farm Aid was a huge highlight of Cowboy’s Nightmare’s career.

Jonna lost two of her biggest fans within two years of one another. In 2002, her father passed and her mother followed in 2004. Music and Cowboy’s Nightmare took a back seat to family during this time. Meeting up with a co-writer to develop songs helped to keep music alive and some sort of sanity during the transition from performing constantly to not-at-all.

Jonna opens her arms and invites you to share the love’s of her life; her songs.