Karen Jonas - The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams
by Helen Tipping
published: 6 / 10 / 2020
Label:
Karen Jonas
Format: CD
intro
Over country and western-influenced fifth album from Virginia-based Americana singer-songwriter Karen Jonas
Karen Jonas is an Americana singer-songwriter from Fredericksburg, Virginia. This is her fifth album, and the first studio only album with previous albums being a mix of studio and live recordings. Despite the Americana description, there is still a bit too much country going on for my tastes. Nevertheless she tells a good story, and all the songs are based on her experiences travelling around on tour, picking up characters she sees and weaving a story around them. The album works best for me when the songs are melancholy, and tip a stetson to Patsy Cline, rather than the staple country sounds. ‘Pink Leather Boots’, has less of a country sound to it and more of a bluegrass element. ‘Maybe You'd Hear Me Then’ is the stand out track for me. It earns the Americana tag, rather than C&W, and ‘Farmer John’, a blues song about the end of a relationship - as befits any blues song - with input from both protagonists in the split, also holds my interest. The album starts with the C&W tracks, and I think I would have turned off before some of the better tracks, had I not been obliged to listen to it all in order to review it. That would have been a shame, as I would have missed the more interesting songs.
Track Listing:-
1 The Last Cowboy (At the Bowling Alley)2 Out in Palm Tree Paradise
3 Tuesday
4 Pink Leather Boots
5 Maybe You'd Hear Me Then
6 Be Sweet to Me
7 Farmer John
8 Barely Breathing
9 Better Days
10 Don't Blink Honey
Band Links:-
https://karenjonasmusic.bandcamp.com/http://www.karenjonasmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/karenjonasmusic
https://twitter.com/karenjonasmusic
Have a Listen:-
interviews |
|
Interview (2018) |
|
| Much acclaimed and rising country singer-songwriter Karen Jonas talks to Malcolm Carter about combining motherhood with a heavy touring schedule and her just released third album, 'Butter'. |
bandcamp
soundcloud
reviews |
|
Summer Songs EP (2021) |
|
| Four track EP from Karen Jonas featuring a cover of ‘The Boys Of Summer’ but it’s her originals that steal the show. |
| Lucky, Revisited (2019) |
| Butter (2018) |
| Country Songs (2017) |
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