In the most recent episode of In Search of a Song, I interview singer/songwriter Diana Jones about her life and music. She had released two finely crafted albums in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until she released “My Remembrance of You” in 2006 that she found her own voice and broke out of the singer-songwriter pack to emerge as a major figure in Americana music. She had discovered a connection, both biological and artistic, to the sounds of old-time Appalachia, unleashing her private muse and creating a record that landed on best-of-the-year lists in the Chicago Tribune and the Nashville Scene.
Topics discussed include: her early memories of writing and singing church music, listening to mainstream folk and rock music, her college years at Sarah Lawrence, how a serious car accident led her into her musical career, thinking in pictures instead of words, discovering American folk music while camping in Europe, the subjects and characters in her first songs, writing her song Pony, the significance of her song Pretty Girl, finding her birth family.
Musical selections include: High Atmosphere, Evangelina, If I Had A Gun, Pretty Girl, Pony, Poverty, Better Times Will Come.
On Rock n’ Roll History 101, I talk with Indiana University Jacobs School of Music professor Andy Hollinden about the 1936 recording of Memphis Minnie’s “Black Cat Blues”. Andy poses the question whether this early Chicago recording was actually one of the first “Rock and Roll” songs.
To listen to this episode of In Search of a Song online, visit:
http://www.prx.org/series/31725-in-search-of-a-song-with-jason-wilber
In Search of a Song is underwritten by Airtime Studios, The Bluebird Nightclub, and visitbloomington.com
For more information, visit In Search of a Song.com
