Review: The Bones of J.R. Jones Catches ‘Slow Lightning’

The Bones of J.R. Jones
Slow Lightning
(Tone Tree Music)
3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Ignore the Halloween/spooky quality of Jonathon Linaberry’s alter ego The Bones of J.R. Jones because the music isn’t as dark or harrowing as his name suggests.

Linaberry has released albums under that alias for about a decade, gradually shifting from a raw, often acoustic blues-based style to a fuller rock attack that remains rootsy. When he sings in the opening “Animals”: I’ll put my mask on/And I’m going to dance to the blues, his style is a combination of organic folk, pop, and subtle indie rock. A move from Brooklyn to a remote area in upstate New York has refined his approach to a “more cinematic brand of roots noir” (quoted from his press release), a vague way to describe his eclectic attitude.

Drum machines, ghostly guitars, and sympathetic synthesizers bolster what is basically a single-man show, albeit one enhanced by longtime associate/multi-instrumentalist Kiyoshi Matsuyama’s production and playing along with a handful of other supporting musicians. But selections such as “Blue Skies,” where it’s just Linaberry’s stark banjo and stomping foot as he sings in a faraway voice:  I’m gonna lie down right here/Let your world cover me/I’m going to disappear/I want to disappear, and the creeping swamp vibe of “The Flood,” are some of the album’s most riveting moments. Conversely the insistent throbbing, percussive, and near glam/T. Rex grind of “Heaven Help Me” steers this in a different direction.

Another twist takes him to the drowsy pop of the drum machine-driven “I’ll See You in Hell,” featuring an unexpectedly upbeat lyric about reconnecting with his lover after an apocalyptic event. It also pushes boundaries, yet stays within Linaberry’s stripped-down audio wheelhouse. The dark country of “Salt Sour Sweet” with its haunting pedal steel where he sings: I’m just tired/I want to burn it down/If I light a fire large enough/Honey would you come home, reverberates with reserved optimism.

Even when the lyrics display anger in “I Ain’t Through With You” (Well you piss me off/The way you make my life), the handclaps and jaunty tone imply a less than distressed story when he follows with: You put a spell on me/And that’s alright with me.

Linaberry’s forlorn, occasionally hollow voice resounds with the character of the Delta bluesmen who influenced his earliest work. It fits with this diverse yet cohesive musical palate whose sonic simplicity belies the five years it took to create and appear.

Photo by Chloe Horseman / Courtesy Missing Piece Group