fR312 PAGES 49-50-51 29/4/09 18:19 Page 1
49 f
Along Came Jones
British audiences particularly like US songwriters when
they show their roots, and so are rapidly clasping Diana
Jones to their bosom. Jon Lusk hears how she found her
way home to Tennessee.
strong old-timey flavour, but the lyrics
S
ometimes being distanced from all the focus on her slight vibrato and sim-
your roots makes you appreciate ple but effective guitar style. She even per- show a modern, progressive approach to
them a whole lot more, and see formed an a cappella version of issues such as economic deprivation, spiri-
them in a different way. Singer/ Evangelina. During Pony, one of the antici- tuality and the environment, which belies
songwriter Diana Jones was pated highlights, she seemed to go into a the redneck, hillbilly image often associat-
adopted and raised by a family in the sort of mini-trance as she tilted her head ed with the genre.
State of New York. But when she eventu- back and made the delicate ululating
On stage she wore a modest white
ally made contact with her birth family in sound that closes the song. The lyrics
blouse and a pencil skirt of shimmering silk
the hills of Eastern Tennessee, she felt an sketch out the life of a
that caught the light, and her outfit
uncanny resonance with the Appalachian Native American girl
seemed uncannily appropriate for
music they were steeped in. Thus began a taken from her cul-
the music. When we met a few
journey of self-discovery that’s now ture and raised in the
days later in a hotel bar in cen-
expressed in her music. white man’s world,
tral London, she was wearing
That process eventually led to her
and it’s one of sever-
jeans and had a much more
acclaimed album My Remembrance Of You
al of Jones’s songs
contemporary look. But as
(2006), followed up this year with the
which either echo
she explained, her image is
equally accomplished Better Times Will
or reflect her own
part of the theatrical expe-
Come. With Iris DeMent and Gillian Welch
‘outsider’ experi-
rience she wants to give
– the artists she’s most commonly com-
ence. Her music
audiences, and definitely
pared to – both seemingly in lengthy
may have a
enhances the perfor-
career lulls at present, Jones’s music has mance. She gets her
filled something of a vacuum for fans of stage clothes made in
such rootsy Americana. her current abode of
Having been one of the most talked-
Nashville by a late
about artists featured in The Barbican’s two
cousin’s widow,
Folk America shows in January, it’s good to
who is usually very
see her booked for several high profile UK
busy sewing for
gigs this summer, culminating in a headlin-
Dolly Parton.
ing show at Cambridge Folk Festival.
As Jones observed when she played
the Purcell Room in London’s South-
bank Centre on 15 March, it’s no
surprise that her music has
struck a chord with British
audiences, since most of the
immigrants who settled in
the Appalachian region
came from this part of
the world. As if to under-
line that, she strummed
out an eerily original
reading of Amazing
Grace on the 1929 tenor
guitar she fondly refers
to as ‘Rosebud’. Tuned in
fifths, its sound subtly
suggests the droning of
bagpipes. And even if
the use of Scottish bag-
pipes on this evergreen
late 18th century
English hymn is actually
a recent phenomenon,
you get the idea…
Although the
albums’ understated,
Photo: Philip Ryalls
acoustic arrangements
feature fiddle, upright
bass, mandolin and so
on, Jones’s spellbinding
solo versions proved
just as engaging, with
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84