Full Review

Diana Jones – Better Times Will Come

Diana Jones released a couple of albums in the 1990s that were pretty much ignored, but the release ‘My Remembrance of You’ in 2006 brought her critical acclaim across the US and Europe.

She explores traditional Appalachian and country music in a similar mode to Gillian Welch, Iris Dement and AJ Roach, in that the songs have a literary feel and are both progressive yet historically rich, but she does so in a way that feels fresh and contemporary.

This new album develops on the previous disc and marks a leap forward in songwriting and the depth and quality of the recording; the musicians who make up the acoustic string band have the talents of multi-instrumentalist Duke Levine, alongside the fiddle and bass of Alica Jo Rabbins and Paul Kochanski respectively, guests on the album include both Mary Gauthier and Nanci Griffith.

Like the songs and arrangements, her vocals are an interesting mix of the tradition and modern, she’s not as fixed to the traditional singing style as Welch or Dement, and at times her alto has echoes of the mountain drawl mixed with the crispness of an East Coast artist – it’s a unique combination that sounds perfectly natural.

The quality of the songwriting and arrangements is high throughout, ‘Henry Russell’s Last Words’ a song based on a letter scratched out with a lump of coal on a paper bag by a miner laying dying after a mining accident is exceptional, and ‘Soldier Girl’ is a study of a girl in a bus dept heading off to Army boot camp that has both fantastic lyrics and a great melody – these are just two songs from an album of consistent quality.

Diana Jones has one foot in the tradition of the Appalachian Mountains and the other in the contemporary singer/songwriter camp; the results are traditional sounding and influenced songs with the melodic smarts and lyrical sophistication of the best modern artists. It’s a compelling mix and it makes ‘Better Times Will Come’ a unique and important album that deserves to find a wide audience. Highly recommended.