Diana Jones is an American singer-songwriter based in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. Jones's career gained wider critical acclaim in 2006 with the release of her album, ''

My Remembrance of You ''My Remembrance of You'' is the 2006 breakthrough album by Diana Jones. Track listing All songs written by Diana Jones # "Pretty Girl" – 3:10 # "My Beloved" – 3:29 # "All My Money on You" – 3:09 # "Pony" – 4:40 # "A Hold on Me" ...

''. The album made a number of critics end-of-the-year "best of" lists. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' rated the album as the "best country recording of 2006" and described Jones as "an Americana gem", whose sound rides "an old-timey vibe that never sounds fussy, ... in a voice subtly shaded by the high lonesome sound."Chrissie Dickinson, "The Best of 2006: Music Recordings: Country: No substitute for experience", ''

'', December 10, 2006
article
Jones has also won a number of songwriting competitions including the venerable "New Folk" competition at the 2006

Kerrville Folk Festival The Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The Kerrville Folk Festival was founded in 1972 by the husband-wife team of Rod Kennedy an ...

. Her song "Pony" was nominated as "Song of the Year" by the

North American Folk Alliance Folk Alliance International (previously the ''North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance'') is a non-profit organization that produces an annual conference that is the world's largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Founded ...

, and Jones herself was nominated as "Emerging Artist of the Year" for 2006.Kim Ruehl, "Nominees for the Second Annual North American Folk Alliance Awards", folkmusic.

about.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

article
, ceremony to be held February 21, 2007)

Biography

Diana Jones was adopted as an infant and raised in New York City. She was first drawn to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

in the early 1980s while attending high school on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. While her peers were listening to

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His ...

and

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

she began to seek out recordings by

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

and

Patsy Cline Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...

. She was also drawn to contemporary acts like

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

and

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...

.Official Biography
from dianajonesmusic.com, accessed January 22, 2007 After graduating from college Jones was reunited with her birth family in eastern

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. It was there that she also gained a sense of her musical heritage when she discovered her grandfather, Robert Lee Maranville, was a talented singer and had been in a

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

band with

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music s ...

. "I found my first

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

recording of Southern ballads up at

Cades Cove Cades Cove is an isolated valley located in the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The valley was home to numerous settlers before the formation of the national park. Today Cades Cove, the single most popular destinati ...

in the Smokies on a drive with him", Jones explained to the ''

Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in 1 ...

''. "I put it in the CD player, and he started singing along and tapping his finger on his leg. He knew all those songs...I felt like I had discovered the source of what I had been trying to find musically." In the 1990s Jones continued to develop as a writer and performer in the music scene around

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

She released two albums, signed a deal with Hamstein Publishing,Hamstein
, publisher, official site and began to develop a grass roots following. It was the death of Maranville in 2000 that caused her to move back to the northeastern United States and enter a period of personal reflection: "I wrote this last project 'My Remembrance of You''in a cabin in the woods, trying to recover my balance after the loss of my grandfather. I was writing songs because I had to, for myself."

Career

Although widely recognized as an "emerging artist" in 2006, Jones's recording and songwriting career began a decade earlier. Her 1997 debut, ''Imagine Me'', has been described as a combination of "the traditional American folk genre with a cutting edge on modern female folk music."Julie Block, "Review: ''Imagine Me''", edited by Shawn Linderman
Peterborough Folk Music Society
1997 Two years later, Jones followed-up with ''The One That Got Away''. Jones really caught the attention of folk music fans when she re-emerged with ''My Remembrance of You''. The album was released March 12, 2006. It was dedicated to her late grandfather while also paying tribute to producer and archivist

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

. The recording almost immediately received high praise from critics.Sonny Thomas, "Review: ''My Remembrance of You''", edited by David N. Pyles
Peterborough Folk Music Society
2006Matt Watroba, "Off the Beaten Track: Diana Jones – ''My Remembrance of You''",

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing Out ...

, 50:2, Summer 2006, p. 119-120 The collection of eleven original songs have been described as "understated and beautifully crafted" and sounding as though they could have been written in 1935 rather than 2005. In addition to vocals, Jones is featured on guitar, mandolin and fiddle. Other musicians include

Duke Levine Duke Levine (born November 29, 1961) is an American guitarist, known primarily for his rock and country music playing as a session musician. Levine was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. He has recorded and performed with Shawn Colv ...

on strings,

Bob Dick Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...

on bass,

Lorne Entress Lorne Entress is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, currently living in Glastonbury, Connecticut, United States. Entress has worked with a wide range of artists in pop, folk, Americana, blues and jazz styles. He h ...

on percussion, and

Jay Ungar Jay Ungar (born November 14, 1946) is an American folk musician and composer. Life and career Ungar was born in the Bronx, New York City. He frequented Greenwich Village music venues during his formative period in the 1960s. In the late 1960s, ...

on fiddle. Perhaps the most noted track in the collection is "Pony", a song told from the viewpoint of a young Native American girl in the 1920s who is forced to assimilate to a life and culture that is not her own: "Pony" features

Ferron Ferron (born Deborah Foisy on 1 June 1952) is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada's most respected songwriters, Ferron, who is openly lesbian, became one of the earliest and most influential ...

on backing vocals. In addition to being nominated for a "Song of the Year" award by the

, the song finished the year at number 15 in the 2006 year-end Folk Radio Airplay Chart.Top Folk Songs of 2006
by FolkDJ-L DJs, compiled by Richard Gillmann In 2007 Jones produced an album of songs written and performed with

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

-based songwriter Jonathan Byrd. ''

Radio Soul ''Radio Soul'' is a 2007 album by "Byrdjones", a collaboration by contemporary folk singer-songwriters Jonathan Byrd and Diana Jones. The duo assembled the album in preparation for a series of tours in which they split the bill across parts ...

'' is a stripped down recording featuring the voices and guitars of the two songwriters with little added instrumentation. In September 2008,

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

released a recording of Jones's "Henry Russell's Last Words" on her album '' Day After Tomorrow''. Baez' album has since been nominated for a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

. In 2009, Jones released "Better Times Will Come" on Proper Records which included "Henry Russell's Last Words," "Cracked and Broken," and "The Day I Die." Nanci Griffith sang back up on the title track. High Atmosphere (Proper) was released in 2011. Museum of Appalachia Recordings was recorded at Peters Homestead Cabin, Museum of Appalachia, in Clinton, Tennessee in December 2012, and released in November 2013. Recorded live with two session musicians, the record was inspired by the love of old-time Appalachian music Jones's grandfather passed on to her. Jones is frequently compared to other distinct voices in

Americana music Americana (also known as American roots music) is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States, specifically those sounds that are emerged from the ...

such as

Gillian Welch Gillian Howard Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, countr ...

Iris DeMent Iris Luella DeMent (born January 5, 1961) is an American two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and musician . DeMent's musical style includes elements of folk, country and gospel. Early life DeMent was born in Paragould, Arkansas, the 14t ...

, and

Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...

. Jones states that she is flattered by the comparisons and if asked to add a name to the list suggests " Ginny Hawker would be the name I would add. She has one of the truest voices I have heard. I love everything about the way she sings a song." Jones has shared the stage with many artists, including Janis Ian, Steve Earle, Martina McBride, Nanci Griffith, Richard Thompson, John Gorka, Mary Gauthier, Old Crow Medicine Show, Guy Clark, and many others.

Discography

* ''Imagine Me'' (1997, New Shoes Records) * ''The One That Got Away (Diana Jones album), The One That Got Away'' (1998, New Shoes Records) * ''

'' (2006, NewSong Recordings) * ''

'', with Jonathan Byrd (May 2007) * ''Better Times Will Come'' (February 2009,

Proper Records Proper Records is an English record label founded by Proper Music Group Chairman - Malcolm Mills and Paul Riley. Commencing with a handful of releases, including the Balham Alligators and Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, the label grew in s ...

K April 2009 S * ''High Atmosphere'' (April 5, 2011, USA) * ''Museum Of Appalachia Recordings'' (July 8, 2013 Proper Records K November 5, 2013 Goldmine Records USA) * ''Song to a Refugee'' (September 25, 2020,

)

External links

Diana Jones
official web site
Diana Jones
at MySpace

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Diana American women country singers American country singer-songwriters American women singer-songwriters American folk singers Sarah Lawrence College alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Proper Records artists Country musicians from Tennessee 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers Singer-songwriters from Tennessee