THE BONES OF JR JONES

“There was no ‘a-ha’ moment,” says Jonathon Linaberry, “no life-changing revelation, no singular flash of inspiration. It was just a fierce, steady, undeniable energy, a force of nature I had to wrestle and wrangle with for years until I could harness it.” 

It’s easy to understand, then, why Linaberry—better known as The Bones Of J.R. Jones—would call his mesmerizing new album Slow Lightning. As its title would suggest, the collection is raw and visceral, pulsating with an understated electrical current that flows just beneath its seemingly placid surface. The songs are restless and unsettled here, often grappling with doubt and desire in the face of nature and fate, and frequent collaborator Kiyoshi Matsuyama’s production is eerily hypnotic to match, with haunting synthesizers, vintage drum machines, and ghostly guitars fleshing out Linaberry’s already-cinematic brand of roots noir. The result is a moody, ominous work that’s equal parts Southern Gothic and transcendentalist meditation, an instinctual slice of piercing self-reflection that hints at everything from Bruce Springsteen and Bon Iver to James Murphy and J.J. Cale as it searches for meaning and purpose in a world without easy answers.  

“I felt very lost at the time I was writing these songs,” Linaberry confesses. “It was a moment of deep crisis and anxiety, but I knew the only way out was through, which meant I just had to bring myself to the table every day and put in the work.” 

Linaberry’s no stranger to putting in the work. Born and raised in central New York, he got his start playing in hardcore and punk bands before becoming enamored with the field recordings of Alan Lomax, who documented rural American blues, folk, and gospel musicians throughout the 1930s and ’40s. Inspired by the unvarnished honesty of those vintage performances, Linaberry launched The Bones of J.R. Jones in 2012 and, operating as a fully independent artist over the course of the ensuing decade, released three critically acclaimed albums along with a trio of similarly well received EPs; landed his songs in a slew of films and television series including Suits, Daredevil, Longmire, and Graceland; and toured the US and Europe countless times over as a one-man-band, playing guitar or banjo while simultaneously stomping a modified drum kit everywhere from Telluride Blues to Savannah Stopover. Along the way, Linaberry also shared bills with the likes of The Wallflowers, G. Love, and The Devil Makes Three, soundtracked an Amazon commercial helmed by Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi, and earned praise from Billboard, American Songwriter, and Under the Radar, among others. 

ANDREW SOVINE TRIO FEATURING
ELLI PERRY

Andrew Sovine is a multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer originally from Nashville. His work (most notably with Ashley McBryde) has garnered multiple Grammy nominations. In addition to his touring and recording work he also owns and operates The Back Room Record Studio. Occasionally he plays loud music with his friends. This has received equal parts praise and criticism.

Elli Perry began her career as a performing singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer at age twelve, by sneaking onto barroom stages around her native state of Georgia. During the subsequent twenty years, she independently released multiple albums of original material, designed and co-directed award-winning music videos, wrote charting songs for other artists, was awarded several artists development grants, maintained the responsibilities of manager, booking agent, and publicist, and toured aggressively across the United States, Canada, and Europe.

On stage, she may be a melancholy mesmerist, a ballsy chanteuse, or a howling one woman vocal wrecking crew- sometimes all in the same note. On record, she has amassed a body of work that seems to defy genre- shifting from Southern Gothic blues and folk, to experimental alternative rock and roll.