Jonathan Gregg & The Lonesome Debonaires

Jonathan Gregg & The Lonesome Debonaires is a New York City roots-rock style band that opened for They Might Be Giants in the 1990's. The band is fronted by Jonathan Gregg, who played guitar for The Mundanes, a band John Linnell was involved with. They have released three albums.

A "prototype" lineup of The Lonesome Debonaires included John Linnell on accordion and clavinet, Al Houghton (engineer of early They Might Be Giants releases) on bass and Rosie Rex on drums.^[1] According to a bio on their website, this version of the band "played six gigs with five different drummers in 1985 before succumbing to logistics, mainly Linnell's increasing success with They Might Be Giants and Al's involvement in Dubway Studios." In 1984 the band recorded 4-track demos of three songs: Can't Be Sure, Famous Last Girl, and Staying On Catherine. These demos were released in 2024 on the archival compilation The Lost Dubway Sessions, 1982​-​2000.

In 1986, Gregg assembled a new lineup of the band, which included another former member of The Mundanes, John Andrews. This incarnation featured Gregg on lead guitar and vocals, Andrews on guitar, Judd Fuller on bass and Ken Meyer (of Life In A Blender) on drums. By 1989, the band had evolved to a permanent lineup of Gregg, Meyer, guitarist Michael McMahon and bassist Chris Smylie. Linnell made a guest appearance playing the accordion and clavinet on their 1991 album Blue On Blonde.

Jonathan Gregg played guitar on the 1983 demo of the TMBG song "Hell Hotel". He also played with Life In A Blender for a short period.