Musician Jon Muq's improbable journey from Uganda to Austin

Transcript

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Amna Nawaz: There are various paths that young musicians can take to produce their first album, but few, if any, have taken one like Jon Muq.

Special correspondent Tom Casciato has that story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Tom Casciato: Jon Muq is a 31-year-old singer-songwriter. He's skilled at melding the sounds of America with those of his homeland. How he came to be that way? Well, he will tell you it wasn't exactly preordained.

He grew up on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, far from even the most basic amenities of the city.

Jon Muq, Musician: We didn't have tap water. Me and my friends, we would meet up with jerricans and we would go to the well, bring water. That's what all the guys did.

Tom Casciato: The only music he knew as a kid was what was played locally.

Jon Muq: Yes, it's 50 tribes and each tribe plays their own kind of music. I was not really exposed to Western music, because growing up we didn't have a TV and I only owned a radio to listen to football.

Tom Casciato: Then, one day, he visited the home of a cousin who had a C.D. of the song "We Are the World." That was the moment everything changed for Jon Muq.

Jon Muq: And I put it and played it and there were many artists. I didn't know most of them.

Tom Casciato: You had never heard Stevie Wonder or Bruce Springsteen?

Jon Muq: No. But I listened to that C.D. until it could not play anymore. I was mind-blown.

Tom Casciato: He immediately set out to learn guitar and privately at least to sing in English.

Jon Muq: At school no one knew I sing.

Tom Casciato: Why were you shy about it when you're such a good singer?

Jon Muq: I could barely speak proper English, and it was just my friends thought I was crazy.

Tom Casciato: He says he only felt self-assured when he sang for kids in the street.

Jon Muq: And they listened, and I started going to the streets of Kampala singing. And these kids helped me build that confidence.

Tom Casciato: To audition for his first gig, he stood in line at a Kampala hotel.

Jon Muq: (Inaudible) And the only song I sang was, "We Are the World."

Tom Casciato: And?

Jon Muq: And the ladies said, told me you have a job today. No microphone, no speaker. The lady just told me, you eat food for free.

Tom Casciato: As he began to believe in himself, he wrote his first song in English. It was for a pal on the verge of losing his girlfriend.

Jon Muq: The girl was breaking up with him, and I was like, hey, I can write the love letter to the girl.

Tom Casciato: Was he trying to get the girl back?

Jon Muq: Yes. The next day he calls me, he's like, "Hey, she loved it."

And I was like, OK, I will use most of the words in that letter to create a song.

Tom Casciato: They're still together?

Jon Muq: Yes.

Tom Casciato: I think this friend owes you a favor.

Jon Muq: Yes.

(Music)

Tom Casciato: That's from Jon's first ever New York City performance at Rockwood Music Hall. But let's go back to the story in Uganda, where he was still outperforming for free.

Jon Muq: And one day, my friend is like: "Dude, this is so cool. We need to capture a video of this."

We took the video and posted it on Facebook.

Tom Casciato: Here's where the story becomes kind of amazing. Somehow, someone from Norwegian Cruise Lines saw this video, and soon Jon Muq was getting paid to sing on a ship like this one.

His next stop would be the U.S., Austin, Texas, to be exact, where the cultural differences ran deep.

Jon Muq: My expectation of the whole picture of America was different. And when it went to make friends, you meet people, and I thought if anyone makes eye contact slightly, show them a welcome sign that, hi, I'm good. In Uganda, you just wave and smile. And when I tried it here on the streets of Austin, my friend was like: "Did you wave at people and smile?"

I was like: "Yes."

He only told me: "This is Texas. It's weird. You can't just do that."

(Laughter)

Jon Muq: And it took me a long time to understand that.

Tom Casciato: It was loneliness, in fact, that led to what is now part of Jon Muq's signature look.

You appear to have two big eyeballs on your guitar.

Jon Muq: The googly eyes?

Tom Casciato: The googly eyes, you call them.

Jon Muq: Yes. Yes. I was sad. There was only one friend I had was my guitar. So that's what I drew the eyes, just to feel like I had a friend that is accepting.

Tom Casciato: Meanwhile, he continued making music and posting videos online, including a familiar number by Paul McCartney.

(Singing)

Tom Casciato: Internet lightning struck a second time. That one was seen by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who signed Jon to a contract and brought him to Nashville. There, he made his debut album, combining the sounds he grew up with the ones he's heard since.

It's titled "Flying Away," and those googly eyes are right there on the cover. The album was called "soaring and soulful" by the roots music magazine "No Depression." Jon's roots, of course, are in East Africa, but the title song conveys something universal about believing in oneself.

Jon Muq: Flying away from home is about people not understanding how you feel inside. If they don't understand you, as long as you believe in what you want to do, you just keep going. And with time, they will know this is why.

Tom Casciato: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Tom Casciato.