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A Conversation with Diana Jones by Frank Goodman (8/2007, Puremusic.Com)

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A Conversation with Diana Jones by Frank Goodman (8/2007, Puremusic.Com) A Conversation with Diana Jones by Frank Goodman (8/2007, Puremusic.com) I first met Diana Jones in passing at a friend's Xmas show, and thought she stood out unusually, in an old world way. When, a few months after, I bumped into her at a Folk Alliance, she and I talked a little in the lobby and I was very impressed. She was not running the usual social software, there was something special there. So when I got a recording of her in the mail, it didn't sit around the way they tend to in this house of records. I put it right on, in a kind of a "let's get to the bottom of this, shall we" mood, positive version. The first song, "Pretty Girl," was arresting in the down home delivery of its message, basically "I don't want to be a pretty girl for you," and I thought, they're going to play that. The tractor beam intensified over the next couple of tunes, until the fourth one, "Pony," a very rare song about a Native American girl. That tune short circuited my mental faculties and hot wired my self into the music of this person that I realized I didn't know the first thing about. Then I started over, and started to listen for real. As many of you know, that's a completely different process that incorporates presence, something in modern day culture that has grown, sadly, rare. And that's exactly what Diana Jones brings to the game, especially in her writing. I love the material on this powerful debut, My Remembrance Of You, so now I'm hungry to hear the other several albums she's written alongside and since, to which she refers in our conversation. But this little record took off in such an unpredictable way that it has kept her on the road for a year and half solid, and threatens to do at a whole new level, since she now has been released in the UK (where she is selling out shows in places she has never been), and in the US has been picked up by Ryko distribution, which will put her work at arms length to all who have been hearing about her this last very busy year or so. When good things happen to good people and great artists, it's like everything is right in the world for a moment. Puremusic: So that's what it takes to catch up with a person like you these days, you have to call them in the UK, right? [laughter] Diana Jones: I'm sorry. I don't mean to be so elusive. PM: So transatlantic. Where do I find you precisely, and what are you up to over there? DJ: Well, right now I'm spending a little time with my family, and yeah, just kind of hanging out with them. Actually, it's funny, my brother-in-law works for a guitar 1 company out of the Czech Republic--well, he actually is a rep, so he reps a bunch of different lines, and he reps this one line that I fell in love with, they're handmade guitars out of Prague. He got me an endorsement deal with them. PM: Of course he did. DJ: So I'm going to Wales tomorrow, which is where the main office is, and I'm going to go try out a bunch of guitars and choose the one I want. [laughs] PM: So what is this company called? DJ: The guitars are called Stonebridge Guitars. And they're named after the Charles Bridge, in Prague, which is made out of stone, and built in the 1300s. [http://www.stonebridgeguitars.com] PM: Wow. DJ: And the guy who makes them--I forget his name offhand because it's Czech and it's hard to remember. But he started making guitars way back in the late '70s. And the Czech Republic was communist, so it was illegal to have your own business. So he had to make them sort of under the cover of night for years, and then was just able, in the last few years to start the company. And he employs 40 people now. And the guitars I've played so far are better than the Martin I've got. They're unbelievable, yeah. PM: Where does his wood come from? DJ: It's all from that area. PM: Wow. DJ: I think it's all within that region. It's the usual suspects, mahogany, rosewood. I'm sure the rosewood is important, and then spruce. PM: He's using spruce tops, of course, not cedar tops. DJ: Both, actually. He's got a couple of different lines. He's got a bluegrass line, and then he's got sort of an acoustic line. PM: And what are you after? Are you after a dreadnaught or an auditorium size, or a little guitar? DJ: I kind of like the smaller ones. Mine is a double O. PM: A double O what? 2 DJ: 0018 Martin. It's an Elizabeth Cotten copy. They did a vintage line, and that was one of them. I think I like the smaller body ones. I'm playing sort of an auditorium size right now that belongs to my brother-in-law, just kind of checking it out. It's smaller bodied. It's not as small as my double 0, but it's pretty small, and it's just so well balanced, and the bass sound is just amazing for the size it is. PM: The auditorium, you mean? DJ: Uh-huh. PM: Yeah, well, that's the thing, if you're an artist like you are that goes back and forth between finger picking and flatpicking-- DJ: Exactly, yeah. PM: --it's really about the auditorium, because the really small guitars don't really strum as well as the bigger guitars, somehow--I mean, with rare exceptions. DJ: Yeah, you kind of need something in the middle. PM: Yeah, the great finger picking guitars. DJ: So I'm sort of in guitar heaven. PM: So will they use you, also, in their advertisement? DJ: Yeah, they will. PM: Beautiful. DJ: They're going to take some pictures tomorrow. PM: I wonder if we can use any of those, because if we can, we want to. We want to get some new pictures of you, and maybe I can sweet-talk your brother-in-law--is that who it is, or did you say your brother? DJ: Yeah, my brother-in-law, my sister's guy. PM: Yeah, maybe he can make it possible for us to use some new photos of the artist. That would be really cool. DJ: And P. [Diana's manager, Pamela Cole] and I do have some new ones as well, just that have been taken in the last few months. And some of those are also from my Epiphone endorsement. PM: So are they on your MySpace page-- 3 DJ: Some of them are. PM: Okay, cool. DJ: There are plenty to choose from. PM: So although we were among the army of people that were more than taken--taken back, is more like it--with your debut, My Remembrance of You, who knew that it would have legs to travel the world and still be going strong after all this time? DJ: Yeah, it's really been quite a year. PM: It's just unbelievable. First of all, how long has it been out, at this point? DJ: It was a year in April. It was just released in the UK this month. And I'm looking in my book to see how many shows I have in April, but let's see--I had a show in Germany and a show in Holland, and then I had--two, three, four--five shows in the UK. And I did two BBC shows. And every show was sold out. PM: And that was in 2006 or this year? DJ: This year, that was my first time here. PM: And they just released it in the UK, and yet the shows were sold out. DJ: Yeah, the US CD was self-released. But Bob Harrison played it a lot, and has gotten a lot of play on BBC2, too, so that really helps over here. And I think also I just got signed with Paul Fenn. We booked most of the shows, but then Paul booked a couple, and then just with his influence, and him putting the word out, I think--it was interesting, I mean, it just was really an amazing feeling to have that many people excited in a country I'd never been to. PM: Well, I think it's indicative, too, of the fact that the people in the UK, both in folk and country music, get into certain kinds of things, certain things that they perceive to be very authentic and very real. DJ: Yeah. PM: And you're squarely in that category, not because of any cogitation or strategy on your part, but just where you're truly coming from. And they really get that. So I'm not surprised that they come in droves. DJ: Well, and I think also the place that this music comes from, it's really the British Isles originally, and it got filtered through the Appalachians. So there's a language 4 bringing it back over here, I think there's sort of a memory of it, there's sort of a context for it in the old English music.
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