Press Kit

Bio | Lyrics | Photos /Poster | Reviews |

Bio: The Short Version
I've been involved with music virtually since birth, when my father , a Ph.D in music theory, didn't quit until he had enough children for a string quartet. Other stops along the way: busking in Paris; the folk club circuit and an album for Transatlantic in the U.K., released in 1978; a funk-rock 5-piece band in Boston in the early Eighties; vintage Tin Pan Alley with the Allegheny Playboys in the new millennium, then the Uptown Combo, an ongoing jazz/blues trio that now plays primarily at the BackStage Bar in Downtown Pittsburgh. The new album of acoustic material (Heartland Variations) completes a circle begun more than 30 years ago. I've since remastered the original Transatlantic LP (No More Range to Roam) and am completing the writing for the next one, provisionally entitled Suburban Two-Step. Given professional commitments, I've done mostly showcase concerts in this latest phase, but I look forward to increasing house concert and coffeehouse performances, and maybe even a return to the UK folk clubs!

Bio: The Long Version
The songwriter saga pretty much started in Paris about 1976, when I found that all I wanted to do was sing and play guitar. I had spent a half-dozen years playing professional basketball (in Portugal) and studying languages (Portuguese, French, Spanish) and was enrolled at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris at the time where I was studying Chinese . I coasted to a degree in that program , while playing in restaurants and the Metro, then and headed out for London to do music full-time, joining a friend of mine in a squat in Central London. The folk revival was going full-speed in the UK, and there were lots of clubs where you could go do three songs for free and have some chance of being hired back for a few quid. I also got a regular gig at Bunjies, a tiny little club in the West End. I met a Welshman named Mick Linnard, a guitarist who enjoyed playing my tunes, and we became traveling partners. I played a showcase spot at the Cambridge Folk Festival, where a singer named Rosie Hardman heard me and recommended me to Bill Leader, a legendary producer (Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and Nic Jones among others), who had a deal with Transatlantic Records to issue records under his imprint.

The album we did together (see Recordings) with contributions from Mick, my brother Jeff, Gerald Moore, who was a popular club guitarist in London and Pick Withers on drums (Dire Straits) had some success. The album was licensed in five countries in Europe and getting some decent reviews, but it came out at the same time that punk hit in London, and the reception for acoustic songwriters was at an all-time low in the UK.

After moving back to the US in 1979, I had a look at the potential for work in the Boston area, and started putting together a band, mostly called the Regulars, which worked consistently for several years with excellent musicians (Andre Locke of Mandrake, Reeves Gabrels who ended up with David Bowie's Tin Machine) and paid starvation wages .

When my wife Linda and I had our two sons, Tanner and Max, I turned my language background into a Ph.D in French literature and became a very part-time musician until they left home. I taught at Bentley College in Waltham, then came to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, where I've been for 17 years, doing research in the French-speaking cultures of the world (especially popular music) and developing technology-enhanced language courses. (If your French needs brushing up, have a look at French Online.)

In roughly 2002, I started playing regularly with a couple of NYC expats named Jonah Winters (clarinet) and Sally Denmead, (cigar-box uke) who had a fetish for Tin Pan Alley tunes from the 30s and 40s. The tunes had lots of changes, I got some guitar chops back together and eventually moved on to playing more blues and jazz-based material with Jack Bowen on piano and Jim Spears on base in a group we called the Uptown Combo. That allowed me to spread out on guitar and learn a whole catalogue of new tunes--never a bad thing. When I had assembled the digital toybox needed to do an album for the Uptown combo, I got the acoustic guitar out and realized that I'd like to do some recording of original material as well. The resulting album-- Heartland Variations--signified a singer-songwriter renaissance. I subsequently remastered the Transatlantic album No More Range to Roam, which is now available on CD, and the writing is complete for Suburbun Two-Step, due out in late 2011.

Download Word version of Bio here.

Songs & Lyrics

Question of Style (from Heartland Variations - 2010) Christopher Jones -vocals, acoustic & electric guitars & bass, Mark Weakland - drums, Bev Futrell - mandolin, Jeffrey Jones - harmony vocals, Karen Jones - harmony vocals.

Lyrics html | Lyrics Word (download)|

Hard to Imagine (from No More Range To Roam - 1978) Christopher Jones - vocals, piano and cello, Gerald Moore - guitar, Pick Withers- drums, Mick Linnard - bass, Jeffrey Jones - harmony vocals and viola.

Lyrics html | Lyrics Word (download)|

Additional samples at CDBaby: Heartland Variations | No More Range To Roam |

Photos /Poster- Click to enlarge in new window. Right-click (PC) or Control-click (Mac) to download.


w/ Band @ Club Café - REH	@ Natasha's - Lexington, KY	Performance image 2010

Heartland Variations front conver	Portrait - REH	No More Range to Roam cover (1978)

11x17 poster - jpeg	11x17 poster - pdf	Performance shot 2012 - REH

Photographs marked REH are © Ruth E Hendricks

Reviews

Heartland Variations - released April 3rd, 2010

"Your tunes are great. I listened to them over the weekend and took some notes. Very professional sound, great playing, love the vocals, love the simplicity and the song structures, love the chorus of Cincinnati Nights... I could go on and on." Mark Weakland, drummer, multiinstrumentalist, songwriter.

"I've not stopped playing it since I received it. I love all the songs. You've managed to pick up some really great licks over the years - . Lyrics and harmonies are about as good as they get. And it's a clean production - everything crystal clear." Michael Linnard, songwriter, longtime backup musician in the UK (CMJ, David Hughes, John Shirbon) and publisher of Little Red Tree poetry series.

No More Range to Roam

Review at Altcountry.nl by Wiebren Rijkeboer. November 10, 2010

Actually this record would be at home under the heading Wow & Flutter [vinyl], but the fact is that No More Range to Roam was recently released on CD by the author himself. It was originally released as the debut album of American singer-songwriter Christopher Jones in 1977, on the famous British folk (rock) label Transatlantic Records. Jones was by invited to London to record an album by producer Bill Leader (Bert Jansch, John Renbourne). Task completed. With a nice relaxed band - electric guitar, bass and Dire Straits drummer Pick Withers - Jones guides the listener through a series of elegant, sometimes a little too neat songs. But there are real passionate songs with nice guitar solos (Morning Glory, Steelhead Blues), which put Jones midway between Jackson Browne and the Pousette-Dart Band. Nice that this kind of obscure record can be made available again, in this case by the author himself, in 2010, 33 years after his debut, as he releases his second album [Heartland Variations]. No More Range to Roam is available from CD Baby.

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Your best work so far... I've actually listed to the CD about 10 times... A great bunch of songs...

I just love No More Range to Roam, It's a throw back to a time when songs were actually written about something real. What a powerful message. I'm appreciative that you are a true troubadour.

Can't wait to have you back on the show.

-Anthony Frazier, host of the Acoustic Hour radio show on WCCS 1160 AM

Melody Maker, London, U.K. 1979

Performance

Club Cafe, Pittsburgh October 9th, 2010.

"The Club Cafe set was a wonderful event for us in many ways.
Your songs are beautiful, full of thought and heart and craft, you sing them perfectly,
your accompanists were fantastic and clearly love you, the music, the relationships
that are involved." Elizabeth Seamans, filmmaker and friend

House Concert, Mt. Lebanon, PA , January 2011

Some prose from Annie Trimble, on the occasion of a 2011 house concert at her place:

Christopher Jones: Original songs, impeccable guitar styles, great vocals, moving lyrics

Curt and I mett [Pittsburgh] singer-songwriter Chris Jones at the Calliope song-swap a year or so ago, and we were very impressed by his well-crafted songs and impeccable musicianship. We are delighted to be able to present him to the great folk music-loving friends who attend our house concerts. Chris is a veteran songwriter and folk musician, who has recently returned to his love of creating and performing his own music after a hiatus to raise two sons. His musical influences began with the 60s roots folk revival, then Dylan, James Taylor and Paul Simon. He was further inspired by UK influences during his time on that folk circuit in the 70s, including John Martyn, Ralph McTell, Nic Jones. He sees himself in the American troubadour tradition now, a diverse group of singer songwriters that include people like Greg Brown, Guy Clark and David Wilcox. Chris writes his stories in the form he's most familiar with: the acoustic folk song, sung with a voice that's well-travelled. His guitar techniques come from many different genres, but he plays mostly traditional flat- and finger-picking styles.