The Bones of J.R. Jones plays at The State Room on Tuesday (9/30/25).
The Bones of J.R. Jones is the creation of New Yorker Jonathan Linaberry, and I learned more than I ever knew about his musical journey when we talked a couple weeks ago. Just before he left on his tour of the western United States, we got to speak about Alan Lomax, field recordings, the search for honesty in songs, and when to call it a night after the showās over.
Q: Tell me this: Is anyone confused when they hear your band name? Do they demand to know who this J.R. Jones is?
Linaberry: Yeah, and often. The J.R. side of is John Robert, my first and middle names. I do have a little buyer’s remorse, though. I’ve been doing this long enough, I never thought I’d be stuck with this name as long as I have. It was a way of creating a little ambiguity initially, so it wasn’t personally tied to me. Thirteen years later, I’m stuck with it.
Q: And you got your start in punk music, correct?
Linaberry: I grew up in central New York, outside Syracuse, and the outlet for my angst was punk rock. As a teenager I was playing in punk and hardcore bands, doing shows at the local community center every weekend. They were my family. When I went to college, I stopped playing music altogether. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore or junior that I took it up again.
I was in a friend’s dorm, and they were playing a guy named Brian Lemon Jefferson, this old Texas bluesman from the late 20s. I was familiar with the blues, but my exposure was pretty limited to the music that came out much later, like Stevie Ray Vaughn. It was a raw, ugly, emotive recording of this guy playing a guitar and just screaming. It was far more punk rock than anything I ever listened to previously, and I felt it deeply.
That opened the door to these field recordings of Alan Lomax, and I went down the rabbit hole of Howlinā Wolf and the Carter family. Americana and folk, blues and gospel. It reignited that flame for me in terms of creating music.
Q: Incredible. I discovered Lomax working at my local library, where it felt like we had everything he ever recorded, songs captured on porches, inside churches, chants. Some of it felt like it shouldn’t have been recorded. It had that level of intimacy.
Linaberry: I know what you mean. There’s a lot of mixed feelings about what he was doing and whether it was exploitive. But without him documenting it, a lot of the stuff would have been lost. It is pretty incredible when you think about it. I heard stories about him wandering around and asking āWho’s the local guy that everybody wants to go see sing?ā Being able to do that and to do these recordings, it was incredibly personal.
Q: Do you consider what you do folk music?
Linaberry: I struggle with that. There are a lot of different genres Iāve been attached to since doing this. On a personal level, I definitely lean more towards an Americana or folk realm these days, or even Americana garage. I don’t even know what to call it.
Q: Maybe it doesn’t matter. It’s just good music, right?
Linaberry: Exactly. And maybe this is me getting myself a Get Out of Jail Free card. I struggle with the idea of people feeling beholden to a genre, right? With any sort of creative act, you should push yourself and explore other spots. Otherwise, it’s derivative and redundant. It may be bad and it may be ugly, but at least it’s a stepping stone to get you to the next spot. That’s how I approach my songwriting anyway, by constantly trying to grow.
Q: And who needs to be just one sound or genre? Some of your older recordings do feel bluesy on some levels, but the newest album, Radio Waves ā comparison is what it is, but it seems like it falls into Nebraska Bruce Springsteen territory.
Linaberry: For sure. I can see that, and Iām a big fan of that record. And going back to finding that nugget of honesty that I discovered in the Blind Lemon Jefferson recordings and Alan Lomax, Nebraska has that same feel. That definitely rings true decades later. It’s a special record.
Q: Tell me what you like about touring. Youāve got a lot of dates coming up.
Linaberry: It’s rare that I get to tour a part of the country during the time of year I want to be there. It’s always off-season. I’m excited to be going through Seattle and Idaho and Utah in September and October. I think it’s going to be beautiful. For me, those are the highlights of touring, being able to explore the country. I never get to stay as long as I want to.
To keep it efficient and economical, my bandmates and I all pile into a truck or a van and carry on. The good news is that we all get along. Weāll see how long it lasts.
Q: Yeah, talk to you after a couple months of touring, right?
Linaberry: Happily, we’re all pretty easygoing, which is good. I’ve never toured with anybody unpleasant, but some personalities mesh well. When you’re in and out of the same small car for three weeks at a time, you can get on each other’s nerves.
Q: You’ve had success getting your music into a lot of TV shows.
Linaberry: I’ve been lucky and fortunate for that. Early on, I made a friend, this wonderful young woman named Jackie, who had taken a job at a licensing agency out of L.A. I was the first person she signed. We started working together, I met the owners of this company, and I’ve been with them ever since. They’ve been incredible and supportive partners, and I’ve been able to maintain being an independent musician throughout that. It’s good and bad. It’s a lot of work, but we’re making it happen and getting my music into commercials, TV shows, and movies.
Q: What do you most like about doing what you do?
Linaberry: If I’m being completely honest, the highlight is writing the songs. That moment of creation. Taking it into a studio and seeing it realized. Sometimes it’s the most heartbreaking part of it, because you can obsess about a song for two years, finally get into the studio, and it never clicks. It never vibrates on the frequency you wanted it to vibrate at.
Still, itās the most exciting part about what I do. Touring is the hardest part. A lot of performers and musicians feed off of playing shows every night. Not me. I take an exhausting eight hour drive to hang out in a club for five hours, just to do it all over again the next day. It’s not my idea of fun, but it’s a job, and I’m lucky to do it.
Q: There’s probably a certain amount of psyching yourself out. If you’re creative, you’re likely more intuitive, maybe more introverted. Those arenāt easy to balance.
Linaberry: I absolutely agree. Look, I do think I am introverted, but I’m also a social person. I like meeting new people, but I get burned out quickly. My shelf life is short at a show, and I’m trying to be better about that. I used to overextend myself to the point Iād become miserable. But I’m getting better at creating fences for myself and recognizing when I need to call it a night.
Q: Who are you listening to?
Linaberry: Today, I was listening to the new Tyler Childers record, Snipe Hunter. Iām a fan of his. I donāt know his catalog extensively, but I wanted to hear the new one. The buzz around it is he’s taking some chances and Rick Rubin produced it, and there were all of these talking points. I got six songs in before I got to where I was going and turned off the car. I try to actively absorb and listen, even if I’m not doing it for pleasure. Iām educating myself.
On the pleasure side, a lot of great music has been coming out of the New Orleans scene. The Deslondes, Sabine McCalla, this guy in L.A. Iāve liked named Reverend Baron, lo-fi indie players with roots in folk and Americana, but doing it their own way.
Q: Safe travels on your way here, okay?
Linaberry: I’m excited to get back to Salt Lake City. It should be a lot of fun playing as a full band. A little louder. A little rowdier. It’s gonna be a good time.
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