Laurelyn Dossett
listen now children a story I’ll tell …

You all know I love a good songwriter’s round. So last summer when I first met Diana Jones and heard her original songs in the Appalachian style, I knew I had one for the round. As a long-time fan of Alice Gerrard’s work, I also knew she would complete the circle.

The three of us will be taking this short concert series on the road, cutting through the winter’s dismal gray like a bunch of red birds, singing songs and sharing stories. I look forward to seeing what comes of this.

Hope to see you all there. Meantime, you can visit redbirdround.com for more information.

7:30 pm Wednesday, December 9
EMFfringe at Triad Stage, Greensboro, NC.
Tickets: $20. Order online.

Noon, Friday, December 11
Live on WUNC’s The State of Things

8 pm Friday, December 11
House Concert and Potluck Dinner at the Clemens’ house, Cornelius, NC.
Dinner at 6 pm. Music at 8 pm. Advance payment necessary to confirm seating.
Tickets $20 adults; $12 students. Call Bethli at (704) 892-4914, or email emiescher@bellsouth.net

7:30 pm Saturday, December 12
The ArtsCenter’s new performance space at University Mall, Carrboro, NC.
Tickets $15; Friend $13. Order online.

7 pm Sunday, December 13
The Poplar Knight Spot, Aberdeen, NC
Tickets $15 presale, $18 at the door. Order online.

Tags: alice gerrard, appalachian summer festival, diana jones, emf fringe, female, house concert, redbird round, songwriter's round, songwriters, the rooster's wife, triad stage

I first heard Diana Jones at the Station Inn last fall and was immediately fascinated by her songs, her voice — and she put on a captivating show in a very calm and unassuming way. We were introduced by our mutual friend John Lilly and immediately found common ground in songwriting. She is a remarkable woman and such a talent, check out her story in the New York Times.

‘Better Times Will Come’ (Proper Records), her unvarnished new album, marks both the culmination of this process and the arrival of a fresh and distinctive voice. The music on the record is built around the familiar fiddles, mandolins and harmonies of rural Appalachia, and yet there’s no regionalism to speak of in Ms. Jones’s supple, loamy alto. She sings of the hard times, murderous urges and chilling loneliness that haunt the old Anglo-Celtic ballads but, with one exception, sets her plain-spoken narratives resolutely in the present. She approaches the mountain-ballad tradition not as a curiosity or antique but as a renewable vernacular that’s just as capable of speaking to the human condition now as it was 80 years ago.