The Bones of J.R. Jones with Jonie Babb Presented by 97.3 KBCO

Growing up Jonathon Linaberry was obsessed with the radio. “I remember sitting there at night glued to the boombox cassette player ready to record whenever my favorite songs came on” he recalls. “There was something so thrilling about it something romantic that I think we’ve lost now that everything’s available at our fingertips. I wanted to find a way to get back to that place to recapture those feelings of excitement and anticipation and possibility.” Linaberry does precisely that on Radio Waves his sixth studio album as The Bones Of J.R. Jones.

Recorded in Toronto with producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist Bahamas) the collection is moody and hypnotic steeped in the sonic landscape of the ’80s and ’90s as it excavates the past with equal parts nostalgia and curiosity. The arrangements are utterly entrancing here built on the tension between acoustic instruments and retro synthesizers and Linaberry’s performances are raw and visceral at times aching in their vulnerability. Put it all together and you’ve got a poignant exploration of memory and longing delivered by a relentless searcher a revelatory work of personal reflection steeped in the endless beauty pain and chaos of youth. “I’ve never really resonated with the idea of ‘the good old days’” Linaberry reflects. “Your understanding of the past and your relationship with it change as you get older and I’ve always been more interested in the evolution of those feelings than in wearing any kind of rose-colored glasses.”

Jonie brings the heart of Oklahoma folk to her new roots in LA with a distinct emphasis on songwriting that feels at once lighthearted and fiercely vulnerable. Her lyrics draw from the well of open-hearted honesty humor and community that defined her Midwestern upbringing anchored in an intimate arrangement of fingerstyle guitar and close harmonies with longtime collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Adam Nash.

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