Back in the late 1960s, an achingly soulful music flooded what some might call the backwater of the blues – Lloyd Jones’ humble hometown of Portland, Oregon.
It rolled in here on a big tide of traveling musicians, including Big Walter, Johnny Shines, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Mama Thornton, George Smith, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.

Jones, a celebrated Northwest singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader of the Lloyd Jones Struggle, not only learned from them but has carried their music, their lessons, their memories and their friendship with him his entire life. He pays homage to the tradition with this intimate 16-song Highway Bound, featuring the folk blues he learned from the greats and has embraced over the ensuing years. “These are the songs that stayed with me,” says Jones, “some of my favorite folk blues simply and honestly done.”

Highway Bound features Jones on guitar and vocals, with duets that include Charlie Musselwhite and Curtis Salgado.

“Lloyd has been a good friend of mine for over 30 years (maybe even longer) and he has always been a great guitar player – great tone and phrasing from the heart. Lloyd is also one of the nicest guys in the business – I always look forward to seeing Lloyd and hearing him play.”

– Charlie Musselwhite   

____________________
Underworld Records
Seattle, Washington
206-340-2622 | info@underworldindierecords.com
 

Like the troubadours of old who spread the news from town to town, the solo artist carries the traditions of his culture in his head and his hands. Country bluesman Lloyd Jones is at once a vital link to the glorious past and a modern interpreter of the “Chaucers” of the blues like Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell and Mississippi John Hurt on his appropriately titled Highway Bound. A virtuoso fingerpicker who plays and sings as easily as breathing in and out, he has produced a magnificent work of musical integrity and spiritual sustenance.

Jones leads off his generous 16-song set with one of his three original compositions. “Travelin’ On” immediately stakes his claim as an effortlessly driving rhythm machine to accompany his deceptively casual vocals that betray decades of soaking up the blues and living life. “Careless Love,” the W.C. Handy classic blues ballad, is dynamically rendered as a vigorous shuffle. It is sung with such conviction as to be read as autobiographical while Jones seamlessly intertwines walking bass lines and chordal harmony. “When I’m Gone” by Elizabeth Cotton takes a side trip from the Deep South to the southeast Piedmont area with a wistful vocal complemented by the gently rolling patterns that Ms. “Libby” perfected. A brisk shuffle provides sensuous propulsion on John Brim’s winking “Ice Cream Man” with compadre Charlie Musselwhite adding sweet, fluid harp fills under and around the double entendre lyrics.

“Broke Down Engine” uncannily captures the idiosyncratic style of Blind Willie McTell with a stunning, virtuosic display of quicksilver licks answering every vocal phrase. Robert Johnson’s “Last Fair Deal Gone Down” is creatively re-imagined on an amplified Danelectro as a funky, hypnotic Hill Country stomp rather than a medium shuffle. “Southbound Train,” however, is taken as an achingly slow blues as opposed to the snappy shuffle of the Big Bill Broonzy original. Jones’ insistently swinging shuffle, “No More Crying” is a virtual compendium of country blues licks performed with consummate grace. The Mississippi John Hurt standard “Don’t Want Me, Baby” likewise reveals his mastery of the tricky syncopated ragtime style along with his naturally warm, unforced and inviting vocal manner.

Broonzy’s oft-covered “Key to the Highway” with two fleet single-note solos, rocks as hard as the famed Clapton/Allman version without the benefit of amplification or a rhythm section. “You Better,” co-written with J. Scroggins, is a show-stopper with dynamic changes of tempo and a lyric admonishing a lady to, “…make a little time for me.” Jones again picks up his Danelectro for a crackling version of Elmore James’ “Cry for Me, Baby,” skillfully weaving the tough signature riff and an aggressive solo into the charging boogie rhythm. A toe-tapping and melancholy ragtime version of W.C. Handy’s “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor” provides a welcome respite with Jones’ ragged vocal adding poignancy. Maintaining the more intimate tone, Jones utilizes Leadbelly’s classic “Goodnight Irene” to cast a dark, late night spell. Staying in the alternating bass groove, he shares his lust for a sweet young thing in Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” that contains the kind of remarkable independence between fingers and voice that can only come from long hours of perfecting one’s craft.

And capping it all is a jaunty duet with Curtis Salgado on the Hoagy Carmichael Tin Pan Alley classic “Lazy Bones” that sways and swings “in the noonday sun” and rounds out the trip from Mississippi to Georgia, Chicago and New York City. It is the most rewarding journey from a guide with impeccable credentials and unquenchable love for his art.