Jon Muq on his latest album, 'Flying Away'

Jon Muq grew up in Mutungo Hill, outside of Kampala, Uganda. He was immediately drawn to music, which led him wandering into a school's choir practice as a child; discovering the guitar and playing for crowds as a teenager; and, eventually, after honing his craft aboard a cruise ship, it brought him to Austin, Texas.

One fateful day, Muq received a random message from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, suggesting the two should work together. They did.

Now, we're on the cusp of Muq's debut solo album, Flying Away, being released. In this session, Muq talks about growing up in Mutungo Hill, why he decided to leave Uganda to pursue his career despite protestations from friends and family, plus he shares live performances taped in front of a studio audience at World Cafe.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.