Chris Jones has been one of those guys who has hovered in the background of the music scene for years but has recently emerged as a recognizable face.\u00a0 He has long been a songwriter and performer with moderate attention.\u00a0 But more recently, his gigs as a broadcaster on satellite radio and writing for a well-read bluegrass blog have increased his reach.\u00a0 And then there is the band he fronts \u2013 Chris Jones & The Night Drivers.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s 2013 effort, Lonely Comes Easy<\/i>, is a worthwhile listen.\u00a0 If you think bluegrass music is all about sounding all high and whiny, this will turn that thinking on its head.\u00a0 Chris has a rich deep baritone voice, and the quiet, mellow harmonies that the group builds around him are mellifluous.\u00a0 Add to that a strong writing sense and some muted but still noticeable musicianship, and you have a collection of good music.\u00a0 The songs paint incredible tableaus in their lyrics.\u00a0 From the lonely abandoned man in \u201cLonely Comes Easy,\u201d to the forbidden eloping love in \u201cYou\u2019re My Family Now,\u201d and even the macho manliness of \u201cToo Hard To Say I\u2019m Sorry\u201d give vivid impressions of the stories being told.\u00a0 None of your obtuse pop ramblings here. <\/p>\n
There are a few twists that make the album interesting, too.\u00a0 There is a slow, forgotten version of \u201cWake Up Little Maggie\u201d resurrected here.\u00a0 Fans of traditional music will likely recognize this as a tune which Ralph Stanley does as a rip roaring bluegrass foot-tapper.\u00a0 Here, Jones takes us back to the original.\u00a0 Much more like the slow Doc Watson version, starting off a cappella and bringing in instruments one by one.\u00a0 It is a haunting, mesmerizing tune.\u00a0 Jones\u2019 sense of humor, often found on the pages of his bluegrass blog writings, is clear in the story contained in \u201cWolf Creek Pass.\u201d\u00a0 Two spiritual tracks, \u201cOne Who’s Coming After Me\u201d and \u201cA Few More Years,\u201d are absolutely gorgeous.<\/p>\n
The word I would use to describe the sound of Chris Jones & The Night Drivers is rich.\u00a0 They are rich in tone, and rich in the depth of their songs.\u00a0 This easily makes Lonely Comes Easy<\/i> a great album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":31586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9210],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43291","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chris-jones-the-night-drivers","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43291"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43291"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}