Jones Street Station - Overcome | Empty Bottle Evenings

Jul122014July 12, 2014July 14, 2014No Commentby Bake

Jones Street Station | Overcome

Posted in Music

Being a hick is in my blood. Or a redneck. Or a hillbilly. I don’t know the exact variation of white trash but I know it’s within me. Maybe it’s my bad teeth, my dad’s mustache, or my deceased grandparents’ pet collection that included goats and raccoons. I’ve never examined my family tree but I just have strange intuition that tells me that my most famous ancestors are probably outlaw bank robbers. At best. The most obvious clue to this lineage however is that every time that I hear banjo and harmonica together I need to jump out of my seat. Or at least slap my knee so hard to the beat that my leg is sporting a solid bruise the next day. It’s involuntary. I’m bound to this reaction like annoying drunk girls are to Katy Perry. Yeeh-haw!

Give me that banjo. That fiddle. That twang. But honestly, I’m not full on Appalachia. I love elements of bluegrass, country, and folk. But I’m too soft. I grew up on Top-40 and showering daily. There will also be a desire for some pop sensibility inside my my brain. And some sappiness. If my forefather was a bank robber he probably also wrote an emo journal about it. And then was publicly hanged because he left so much incriminating evidence around. Idiot. Anyway, that’s who I am. I’m a sucker for singer-songwriters, but equally seduced by bluegrass. You too? Well, let me welcome you to Jones Street Station. (I’m apparently also a loud-speaker.)

Jones Street Station released their album Overcome in 2007, back when they were known as The Jones Street Boys. Oh, how we all grow up to be men (or stations?) so quickly. It’s their first album, and it establishes a few things about the band that I truly love about music. First of all: Harmonies. And not just the Diana Ross belts everything out while the Supremes ooh and aah in the background all the way to the bank. This band has multiple people who can sing and are multi-instrumentalists to boot. (where the hell did that ridiculous expression come from? To Boot?) They share the lead vocals, often alternating within a song, which is probably my favorite thing of all time. Except fried chicken. One guy that sings, I remember from seeing them live, looked a little like Jesus and played a mean harmonica, and as you hopefully can tell from listening. The harmonica part. Not so much the Jesus thing. There’s another guy who sings and plays keyboard, which is not exactly as appalachia as a washboard or a jug, but its still helps a lot with the ballads. If I had to recommend two songs (because fuck it, let’s not get greedy with your attention span) I’d go with “River Wide” and “Last Time”. They make me want to clap my hands and Dosey Doe. Yep, that’s how you spell it, I looked it up. Or I used my hick intuition or whatever I’m trying to sell you about myself today.

Jones Street Station’s 2^nd album In Verses is also good. It’s a little more jazzy at times. But has enough bluegrass (“Flyover State”) and pop-rock (“Slow Lights”) to satisfy both the stained white tank top and the put-on-a-real-shirt-for-your-date romantic in you. I’d see them live again but it doesn’t seem like they are really able to tour anymore. They did start a pretty cool project to keep making music as band that lives in different states so they do have more music to check out. But if your ever get a chance to, you should see them live. They’re fun and for what it’s worth they seem like great guys. Pop music with the echoes of bluegrass… minus the echoes of incest. Or bank robbing. Or whatever. I’m a moron. Blame Uncle Cletus.