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JPR Live Session: The Bones of J.R. Jones

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Where some musicians lock themselves away in a studio to create an album or a concrete collection of songs, Jonathon Linaberry can’t help but write whenever inspiration strikes. The blues singer and multi-instrumentalist, who incorporates elements of old-time folk into the all-encompassing persona of The Bones of J.R. Jones, describes his songwriting as “a continuing evolution.” Nonetheless, he admits he often wishes his ever-wandering creative spirit would settle down. “I would jump at the chance to have the flexibility where I can have six months locked away in a room and focus on one solid cohesive theme for a record,” Linaberry says. “But unfortunately with my schedule I try to cram these songs into the spaces of my life where I can fit them.

Thankfully, within these delicate cracks of life, Linaberry is able to strike musical gold: The Bones of J.R. Jones’ latest album, Spirit’s Furnace, a crisp nine-track effort that bubbles with barroom dust and hard-won wisdom, finds the musician expanding the scope of his musical vision while stripping away the excess. “I’m a little clearer on the message that I’m trying to put out into the world,” says the singer who has effectively blurred the line between his own life and The Bones J.R. Jones character; he draws evermore from his personal life on his songs, most notably the tender, banjo-plucked “Wedding Song” written day’s before his own nuptials.

It’s definitely a balance,” Linaberry says of expanding beyond his self-created alter ego. “I try to inhabit this character… whoever it may be. But obviously a huge influence on that is what’s going on at that time in my life. And then I’ll twist it through the spectrum of The Bones of J.R. Jones. It usually gets a lot darker after but they both inform each other.

As FM Network Program Director and Music Director, Eric oversees many aspects of JPR's broadcast day. He still hosts the occasional Open Air or classical music shift, and is the driving force behind JPR Live Sessions - our popular series of live in-studio music performances and conversations.