Glenn Jones
"The best guitarist you never heard of." —The Boston Globe
A 30+-year devotee of the so-called American Primitive school of acoustic steel string guitarists, Glenn Jones has been playing guitar since the age of 14. He formed Boston pysch-rock band, Cul de Sac, in 1989 and led it on its 20 year journey to nowhere, leaving nine albums in its wake, including collaborations with guitarist John Fahey and Can's Damo Suzuki.
In 2004 Jones released his first album of acoustic six- and 12-string guitar instrumentals, This Is the Wind That Blows It Out, and set out on a month-long tour of Europe and the UK with guitarist extraordinaire, Jack Rose.
Against Which the Sea Continually Beats followed in 2007. Recorded on Martha's Vineyard, the album runs the gamut from the Delta to Appalachia, from bastard classical to cinematic soundscapes. Graceful, subtle, resonating with confidence and power, the album is seen as a significant addition to the "guitar soli" canon.
A third solo release, Barbecue Bob in Fishtown, which found Jones focused on the 12-string guitar and introduced the banjo to his arsenal, was selected by Wire magazine as one of the best 50 albums of 2009.
Jones has performed with and written extensively about the leading lights of the American Primitive guitar style, John Fahey and Robbie Basho. Longstanding friendship with both artists and first-hand knowledge of their work inform his writing, which includes incisive liner notes for five Fahey albums. Jones produced Fahey's posthumously issued 1968 live album, The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick (Water) as well as a 1980 live recording by Robbie Basho, Bonn Ist Supreme (Bo' Weavil). Further projects by both artists are in the works.
Glenn Jones and Jack Rose toured the U.S., Canada, Europe and the UK, and Jones guests on several of Jack's album, including the just-released Luck in the Valley. The Things That We Used to Do, a DVD featuring hour-long solo sets from each artist, and a pair of duets, is scheduled for release in April 2010 by Strange Attractors.
Jones has also performed with Peter Lang, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Cian Nugent, James Blackshaw, Paul Metzger, Peter Walker, Meg Baird, Harris Newman, Sean Smith, MV + EE, Dredd Foole, Tom Carter, and many others.
Selected Press
...an incredibly adept fingerstyle guitarist whose technique always remains in service of the song... His vigorous leaps are daring but never reckless, and nearly always sublime.
-- Keith Goetzman, Utne Reader
...establishes the guitar aficionado as nearly being in a world of his own as far as technical prowess and emotional resonance goes... a wonderful and mesmerizing album of masterful guitar work from one of contemporary music's finest... a graceful, nuanced, tranquil affair...
-- Audiversity.com
...captivating... Jones' slide work on the resonator guitar sounds especially meaty, and when all six, and sometimes 12, strings start chiming as he fingerpicks, the effect is shimmering.
-- Mike Shanley, Harp
...Jones uses half-capos and alternative tunings to create incandescent sitar-like sounds... these shimmering musical meditations evoke a wondrous tranquility that's simply soulful.
-- Linda Laban, Boston Globe
...carefully drawn and skillfully paced audio narratives that impart emotions ranging from sweet affection to complicated grief... declare[s] Jones to be a musician whose moment has arrived.
-- Bill Meyer, Dusted
Jones couldn't be more pliant, blending Old World into New... he dedicates himself to mastery on a downright thrilling listen that threatens to elevate his chosen idiom to renewed prominence.
-- Kevin Keegan, Illinois Entertainer
...both daring and accessible... Jones is a talent who deserves a larger audience...
-- Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix