The Bones of J.R. Jones
Roots/blues/folk/country
When Jonathon Robert Linaberry needs a break from city life, he goes
Upstate, near the Catskills, to renovate a little farmhouse he purchased a
couple of years back. As he pours himself into his work, J.R. doesn’t think
about texts, email, or even his music, which he performs solo under the moniker
The Bones Of J.R. Jones. His only focus is the house.
“That’s been an amazing emotional outlet for me,” he says of his periodic
retreats. “To kind of sustain myself after coming from the road and getting
back into the grind of the city, to have this, for lack of a better term,
Shangri-La.”
In a sense, recording and touring as The Bones Of J.R. Jones is its own form
of isolation. But you wouldn’t immediately think so: As a one-man band, J.R.’s
project, which fuses a moody blend of soul, blues, roots, and Americana, sounds
enormous both on record and live in concert. That’s because J.R. plays—and has
grown accustomed to playing—every instrument by himself.
He’s happy to report, though, that he’s a lot less solitary on his
forthcoming third full-length album, Ones To Keep Close, which is
due to arrive on May 11. In addition to workshopping the 11-track album with
producer and good friend Rob Niederpruem at Hyperballad Music in Brooklyn, J.R.
also called on soul-psych luminary Nicole Atkins, who guests on the album’s
jangly lead single, “Burden.”
“I played a show with [Nicole] in Philadelphia a few months back, and we
totally hit it off,” says J.R. of how they met. “It was the first time I ever
got to see her live. She’s amazing live, and I guess she liked what I was
doing, so we kept in touch. I approached her with this idea of doing a duet,
and she agreed!”
It’s fitting then, that “Burden,” a quick-footed tune about the emotional
isolation that comes with touring as a one-man band, would be performed by two
people.
“‘Burden’ comes from a spot of catharsis,” says J.R. “I tour a lot by
myself, and it’s tough doing it by yourself, being alone all of the time. The
whole idea of ‘Burden’ was having that person to share that with. Kind of like
misery loves company. Having someone be there. To be your rock. No judgement,
just I’m here for you.”
J.R. even gathered more bodies in the studio itself, hiring musicians with
whom to record and bounce ideas off of. On the gritty “I See You,” J.R. worked
with his session percussionist to pick up the pace from a slower, “swampier”
drawl to an 180 BPM “swagger.”
“It was one of those moments where someone gives you a fresh perspective on
something,” recalls J.R. “I was working with a drummer named Ian Chang, and he
and Rob had this moment where they were like, what can we do with this? How can
we make this as meaty and rocky as possible? And ‘I See You’ was birthed out of
that. I love the song. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the record. It’s so in
your face, compared to some of the other stuff I do.”
Another favorite of J.R.’s is the minor-key garage-blues romp “Know My
Name,” which the singer points to as harkening back to his personal tastes the
most. “I listen to a lot of soul, a lot of old blues,” he explains. “Obviously
there’s a lot of garage-rock influence. The old soul, like, Sam Cooke and Bill
Withers. Lee Fields. Even Charles Bradley. There’s still for me, the roots,
which is, R.L. Burnside. I try to incorporate all of that.”
Finally, Ones To Keep Close wouldn’t feel complete
without the redemption-themed “Sinner Song,” a softly strummed, slow burn that
eventually reaches a quiet crescendo with scratchy strings and J.R.’s murmuring
hum. “I somehow feel like the softer, more low-key songs on the record always
end up being my personal favorites,” he says. Maybe because it’s a track
that I’m the most intimately or personally invested in.”
Even as insulating as solo musicianship can be, J.R. finds comfort in
reflecting on how much The Bones Of J.R. Jones has grown in the last year. The
project is like that house in the Catskills—constantly evolving. In addition to
recording with Niederpruem and a backing band, this album marked the first time
J.R. felt able to adequately flesh out his ideas in the studio without feeling
rushed.
“Every time I’d gone into the studio prior to [this record], it’d be like,
‘Okay, we have five days… this is what it’s costing for five days… let’s just
bang out whatever nuggets of ideas we had, and that’s the album—good or bad, no
cohesiveness, no common thread,” J.R. says. “This was the first time I was able
to be a little more thoughtful and slow it down a touch, and write songs for
that moment and bring them into the studio and develop them.”
The result is a crisp, expertly produced collection of stomp-along songs
that evoke a vivid spectrum of feeling: pain, fear, excitement, joy, longing,
regret.
“I had this perspective of what I wanted
this album to be, which is a studio moment,” he continues. “Knowing myself well
enough, I had the perspective of the prior two albums, and how they felt a
little mish-mashed. And so having the studio as a goal to work these songs
toward was the main impetus... I’m totally proud of the album and what we
produced.”
- Website:
- http://thebonesofjrjones.com/
- Facebook:
- http://www.facebook.com/TheBonesofJ.R.Jones/