Today, Nashville-based indie folk artist Stone Jack Jones has announced his new album Black Snake, sharing the lead single “Mary Mary.” Black Snake LP is out September 13th via yk Records.
Stone Jack Jones’s latest album is three songs of death, two of madness, two of love and the song of a journey. Recorded with Roger Moutenot (Bill Frisell, Joseph Arthur, Yo La Tengo, KORT) at Haptown, his tucked away studio in Nashville, TN, Black Snake takes a dark folk sound and spins it into a uniquely psychedelic sonic tale.
Collaborations from a host of Nashville musicians flesh out the compositions into the dark tomes. Kyle Hamlett (lylas), Rodrigo Avendano (Coupler, Sun Seeker, Soccer Mommy), Patrick Damphier, Luke Schneider (Margo Price), Katie Banyay (Idle Bloom), Stewart Bronaugh (Lionlimb), Gyasi, Scott Martin and Madeleine Besson are among the contributors.
The album’s cover art depicts original artwork from Stone Jack Jones’s son, Logan Jones, and the album was mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master.
Based in Nashville, but raised in a coal miner’s company house on the banks of Buffalo Creek, WV, Stone Jack Jones is the descendant of four generations of coal miners. After being rejected from military service in Vietnam due to epilepsy, and discouraged from pursuing the coal mining business, Jack decided to start wandering. By the time he landed in Nashville, where he met Roger Moutenot, Patty Griffin, and Kurt Wagner, Jack had worked as a carny, an escape artist, a ballet dancer, a professional lute player, and even owned a late night performance art club in Atlanta.
His fifth full-length album, Black Snake, was produced and recorded with longtime collaborator Roger Moutenot, known for, among many things, Yo La Tengo, Joseph Arthur, KORT, at Haptown, his tucked away studio in the industrial Wedgewood Houston neighborhood. Across the span of some forty-five minutes is an exploration of a warped version of his American rambler style, distorted into a dark folk sound and spun it into eight uniquely psychedelic sonic tales; three songs of death, two of madness, two of love and the song of a journey.
Recorded with a host of collaborators among the Nashville music scene, these songs are a intoned with reflections on both specific ailments of our times – police brutality and the immigrant crisis among them – and the general weariness of the human condition. Stone Jack Jones descended from the hills of West Virginia and all of the folk song traditions that come with it; including a sliver of optimism that we are all bonded through common experiences; even when they’re difficult.
Glide is proud to premiere “Mary Mary” (below) from Stone Jack Jones off of Black Snake, a gritty and emotive nugget that captures Jones at his most poignant. There is a breezy and cinematic aura to the track that mixes Blood on the Tracks Bob Dylan production with Jones’ well-seasoned Nashville voice.
“Rodrigo Avendano is an amazing musician, really,” gushes Jones about the track. “His bass playing on ‘Mary Mary’ and ‘O Brother’ just took those songs to a different place. This is the thing about not telling people what to play – you get these beautiful surprises. ‘Mary Mary’ by itself is an okay song, but that little snappy bass that he puts through it is over the top. I think some guys would say, ‘Okay, this is kinda weird and dark, so I’ll do a weird and dark bass part. Rodrigo hears this song and completely transforms it – makes it great!”
Photo by Erich Vogel
