Outlier Circa 1980 is a record that essentially took Jones 20 years to make. Some of the songs on the record were written 20 years prior to being recorded. The introduction to the record is an old spiritual song that he had heard every Sunday while attending the Baptist church of his youth. It’s an erie segway into the first track “Down to the River” that is about the corruption of man and a looming “apocalypse”. The second tune is the melody to the song “Wild Wood Flower” made famous by the Carter family. This was the first tune Jones learned to play at five years old, taught to him by his dad Wesley. The last track ”Glass Houses" is a re-recorded song Jones wrote that was originally released under his band Steel Magnolia on Big Machine Records. About the record, Jones said “I wanted to make a record that was just me and a guitar for a long time and I had finally become ready”. This record is as raw as it gets, as each song is actually recorded live with no overdubs except for an additional slide guitar pass performed by Jones on the track “Some Ol Angel”. This song details Jones’s struggle with depression, sobriety, and spending time in jail the prior year to its release.
Josh’s Picks
*Heaven
*The Future Holds
*Lola Rothschild
How The Story Goes was recorded primarily in two sessions at Omni Sound in Nashville TN. The first session was on Halloween in 2018. This record was co-produced in session by ACM guitarist of the year Tom Bukovac. A video for the song “Honky Tonk Night” was independently made by Jones. Jones felt this song was special as it came to him in a dream, where he was hanging out at a bar with a faceless stranger. He groggily woke up with the title in his head and wrote the song about ten minutes after waking up from that dream. He says it felt like a gift. The video was shot by Catrina Englby. The live bar band footage of Jones on stage was taken at the famous Whiskey Jam where Jones was performing live to tape at Winners Bar in Nashville, TN.
Josh’s Picks
*Honky Tonk Night
*Thirty Something Kids
*Flesh and Bone
Recorded in 2017, the title track and record “The Rural Deal” pays homage to Jones’s longtime friend and one of his biggest musical and writing influences Josh “Tullie” Alford, who passed away months before the release of the record. Jones recorded three songs on the album written by the late Josh Alford “The Rural Deal", "Whiskey Glass" (originally sassafras’s) and "King of Tears". The slide guitar part played by Producer Josh Kaler was played with a small glass bottle of Josh Alfords ashes that Jones had given Kaler during the session.
Josh’s Picks
*Britney
*Bullies
*Goodbye Illinois
Recorded at First Avenue Sound in Franklin, TN and the historic RCA Studio A in Nashville, TN. The Healing is an eleven song independent record written and executive produced by Jones in 2012. However, it was not released until 2014. This is an introspective record. The title track, "The Healing" was written by Jones and Lady Goodman in the writing rooms of Universal Music Publishing in Nashville, TN. Jones had come up with the melody while driving through the hills of Brentwood on the way to the writing session. The song details the hurt, loss of love, success, and the obstacles that people face in the path of following their dreams.
Josh’s Picks
*DUI
*Tennessee House
*Just How A Heart Breaks