Jon Langford is responsible for way too much great art for you not to know who he is. To begin at the beginning, he’s one of two remaining original members of the Mekons, singing and playing guitar in the increasingly difficult-to-categorize onetime punk band he founded while studying art at the University of Leeds, England, in 1977. Their albums Fear and Whiskey and Edge of the World, from 1985 and 1986, respectively, were among the earliest specimens what came to be called alt-country.

After touring and recording with the Mekons virtually nonstop throughout the latter half of the 80s, Langford moved to Chicago in 1992, where he founded the Pine Valley Cosmonauts (a classic-country tribute band) and Waco Brothers (roots-rock and country originals, with the occasional Johnny Cash cover thrown in). Oddly enough, his pronounced Welsh accent proved itself ideally suited to country music — real blood-and-tears country, not the turgid, condescending pablum that flies off of Wal-Mart shelves. While continuing to play with the Mekons and the Waco Brothers, Langford began in the late 90s to release frequent solo discs, somehow becoming the de facto ringleader of a group of a dozen-odd “insurgent country” bands on the Windy City’s Bloodshot Records label.

Langford is also an active painter who has frequently exhibited his portraits of 20th-century music legends such as Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. (You can find his portrait of Buddy Guy on the wall at the Birchmere.) Perhaps their most notable showcase came in 1998, at a gallery mere blocks away from Nashville’s Music Row in a show titled The Death of Country Music. (Which also happens to be the title of a great tune on the Waco Brothers’ first album, 1997’s Cowboy in Flames.) Along with his paintings, the show featured a dozen full-size granite headstones.

Pictured: Jon Langford, a Mekon in full.