Mr Jones - Singer/Songwriter

Let's leave it that Mr Jones is not this songwriter's given name. Mr Jones hails for Germany and he travelled all the way to the Gulf Coast and Rock Romano's Red Shack in Houston, Texas to record this album. Overseeing the sessions was none other than Eric Taylor, the Texas-based songwriting giant. In my eyes, at the very least. Mr Jones is assisted instrumentally and vocally on Waitin' For Me by percussionist James Gilmer [Lyle Lovett Large Band], songwriter Mike Sumler on keyboards and Eric on bass, guitar and vocals. The backing vocalists include Susan Lindfors and Alaina Richardson, both of whom contributed to Eric's most recent studio recording Scuffletown [2001].

Jones, as Taylor affectionately refers to him in concert, opens the disc with "Lungs," penned by the great and [sadly] now late, Townes Van Zandt. Opening with the lines "Won't you lend your lungs to me, Mine are collapsing'," the lyric clamours to be delivered as a cry of desperation balanced with the fact that, for the narrator, time is fast running out. Suffice to say the faint rasp in Jones' voice perfectly realises Van Zandt's intention. There's a wistful impression of something lost, though not clearly defined, in Jones' "'41." In concert he revealed that his father was the result of a short-lived wartime liaison and that it was only a matter of months before his paternal grandfather's passing [a couple of years ago] that Jones and his father finally met their blood relative. Until that meeting, the only memento Jones possessed was the faded picture of a man taken, way back, in "'41." Commenting upon two differing aspects of the encounter, in the lyric, Jones declares, "I see you sittin' by the fire, Day and night they disappear" and "Maybe I just made my peace with you, I ain't accusin' you of theft."

Mr Jones penned nine of the eleven cuts on this collection, the only other cover song being Si Kahn's philosophically titled "What You Do With What You've Got." Taylor's harmony vocal is well to the fore on the album title cut, a song lyric steeped in twentieth century real life personalities and fictional characters. For instance, the casually delivered lines "It's funny Holden longs for Ackley, He misses Maurice too," are a direct reference to J. D. Salinger's 1951 classic The Catcher In The Rye and that verse goes on to further trace the novel's plot. One of Taylor's finest compositions "Dean Moriarty," and the second verse of "Waitin' For Me" mention Sal and Dean [Moriarty] - characters in Jack Kerouac's influential work On The Road. To further emphasise the literary connection, Jones adds that Sal "knows that God is Pooh Bear." As for the Harry who "still can't laugh," well that's a little more obtuse. Jones also pursues a literary theme in the penultimate cut, "Alley of Dreams," through the painting of vivid and colourful word pictures, while the repetitive chorus-line "You can't hear the screams in this alley of dreams" emphasises a feeling of uneasiness among the surrounding beauty. In closing, the lyric mentions John Steinbeck's creation Tom Joad.

An aged Texan, born and raised on Corpus Christi, is "waiting for to die" in "Colorado." He surveys his life - a wife, three kids, a dead end job, and a one-time visit to the snow capped mountain country of the South West - and hopes that "One day I'll ride the cold wind up to Colorado." "No Hello No Goodbye" is a road song, while "Good Enough" explores the human weakness for dreaming of things that are always just out of our reach. As for "Love And Poetry" it's, a song about the writing process, a tribute to the fact that for creation to occur "Sorrow sometimes makes it all so clear."

Meantime this fine collection of songs is only available from Mr Jones on the net at www.mrjones.net.

Arthur Wood is a contributing editor at FolkWax.