A Conversation with Diana Jones (continued)

PM: So are you still touring with Beau Stapleton?

DJ: I am.

PM: Good. So that's a partnership that has worked out very well.

DJ: Yeah, he's really amazing. I can't say enough good things about him. He's got a lot of energy for this. He always gives his best. He just always gives 100 percent. He's a great player. We've been working more and more of his vocal harmonies in. He's a great singer. He reads maps, he's a really good navigator.

PM: God bless him.

DJ: It's unbelievable, because he studied geology in college so he just has this knowledge of maps that goes beyond what most people do.

PM: He reads them topographically.

DJ: He knows rock formations. We were in Colorado, and I just learned so much about rock formations from him. It was great.

[laughter]

PM: Now, what's he playing with you, what instruments?

DJ: He's playing mostly mandolin and tenor guitar. He's got a beautiful 1920s Martin tenor. It was like the first year that Martin made tenors, and it's just gorgeous. And he plays it--he always says that's like the true instrument of his soul--he just plays it like you've never heard anybody else play it. It's really beautiful.

PM: How is that strung?

DJ: It's like a mandolin, but it's lower. It's the same relative tuning as a mandolin. And then he cross tunes it sometimes like a fiddle. And when we're in the States, when we have a car and we can bring what we want, on a couple of songs he'll also play a National that I have, and sometimes the little guitar.

PM: And so along with Beau Stapleton, as we mentioned in passing, another partner along the way was Jonathan Byrd that you did quite a bit of gigging with, and made a quick and great record with.

DJ: Thanks, yeah. Yeah, Jonathan has been great. I think that we come from a very similar place in terms of what we love in music and what resonates for us. So when we sat down the first time to just share some songs, it was pretty obvious right from the beginning that there wasn't a lot of effort involved, that it just kind of flowed.

PM: And he's the rare songwriter that's a very good flatpicker.

DJ: Unbelievable flatpicker.

PM: And you yourself are a good flatpicker, but he's even beyond, like a fiddle tune kind of flatpicker.

DJ: Yeah, he actually plays fiddle tunes. He's really amazing.

PM: So when I saw him with you in November of last year at the Radio, I was very impressed by how well he backed you up, or backed the two of you up.

DJ: That was our first gig.

PM: It was your first gig!

DJ: I think we had one rehearsal.

PM: Oh, my lord. Now, although I was pretty early in my days with my little camcorder then, I rooted around and found the tape that I shot that night. So if there's any good footage I'll run a couple of guerrilla clips along with the interview. [That didn't pan out, but here, on our review of one of Jonathan's albums, you'll find a couple of video clips from that show.]

DJ: Great. Oh, I'd love to see it, because [laughs] we were both kind of flying by the seat of our pants, for sure. And then we rehearsed for two days next time he came back in January, and then had one show at the Down Home in Johnson City, and then the next day went into the studio and made the record, on that one day. Like in seven hours.

PM: So you recorded it where, in Johnson City, or back in town?

DJ: Back in Nashville, yeah.

PM: Where?

DJ: It was this little studio owned by somebody that Jonathan knew. And then the guy who engineered was one of the guys that engineers at Kerrville, he does all the recordings for the Kerrville Folk Festival. And then we had it mixed in Nashville, also, by Cliff Goldmacher.

PM: Oh, Cliff Goldmacher, sure. One of our favorite people.

DJ: I love him. Yeah, he's so great to work with. I've always wanted to work with him. And we just got to this point with the record where we knew we needed somebody to mix it, and I went Cliff! Finally!

PM: Yeah, he's a superior fellow. And a lot of people don't know that he's an iron man. If he takes off his shirt, it's scary.

DJ: Is it?

PM: Yeah.

DJ: I've never seen that, but yeah.

[laughter]

PM: Touring as relentlessly as you have since the record, is it possible at all to write the way you'd like to, or at all?

DJ: I'm definitely writing. It's hard to write as much, obviously, because so much of my time is taken up right now. But I try when I get home and I have a little time to just really get stuck into it.

PM: How much time would you need or like to have to get the next solo CD written?

DJ: Oh, it's written. It's been written for a long time. Yeah, I probably have about three CDs written right now.

PM: Oh. Well, there you are.

DJ: Yeah, because I wrote so much when I was writing for the first one that I had a lot of overspill.

PM: Do you play any of that overspill live, or do you hold it back?

DJ: I'm starting to play a few songs, just to get feedback on some of them.

PM: And besides, you got to play some new songs or you go crazy.

DJ: Exactly. But it's like you said, how that album has had legs for so long, it's been interesting that here I am releasing it again here, and playing the record. But when I was writing, I was really in mind of the fact that I wanted to write songs that I would want to play for that long, hopefully. I mean, every now and then I do need a little time off from them. [laughs]

PM: But when you did that record with producer Mark Thayer, did anybody know when it was done what you had and what might happen?

DJ: I don't know. I mean, what I knew was that I had made the best record I could. And that was really all I was interested in at that point, because I didn't even know that I was going to move to Nashville. I didn't know what I was going to do with it exactly. I just knew that if I had ever gotten to the point that I decided to do something else other than music, I at least wanted to know what I'd made the best record I could. So that was really where I was with it. And I think Mark and I knew the songs were special when I went and demoed them. We were both kind of excited about that. And he really pushed me after we demoed. We spent a day demoing songs, and I think we got 26 in a day.

PM: Wow.

DJ: But he just ran tape, and I just kept singing. At the end of the day we both kind of collapsed into a happy lump together. [laughs] We listened to them over the next week or two after that. And I remember him calling me and saying, "You really need to get the money together and make a record."

PM: Yeah. So why on earth did Signature Sounds never pick up that album? What's that story, when Mark Thayer--

DJ: If you want to call them and ask them, that would be fine. [laughs] I have no idea.

PM: I mean, Mark Thayer is their engineer, is he not, or part of the company, or something?

DJ: Yeah, he is. He mostly owns the studio. But he can send things Jim Olsen's way, I guess. I love Mark, I've worked with him before. This was the first time we made a record together. I'd done some demo work with him before. And I just love him. We just have a really great friendship and a really great working relationship. So I guess there was some place in the back of my mind where I had the dream that I would be signed by Signature Sounds, and Mark and I could continue to just work together.

PM: I mean, Jim Olsen is a very smart guy. He's got very good ears.

DJ: Yeah.

PM: So I don't get it.

DJ: It just hasn't hooked up, I don't know why.

PM: I mean, even after the album succeeded he didn't come back and say, "Okay, I missed it. Let me sign this anyway."

DJ: Well, maybe also it could have been the timing, because he put out a female artist this last year.

PM: Didn't he put out Eileen Jewell?

DJ: Yeah. So we are looking for a label for the next record. And I think that--I don't know, there's some kind of thing that happens with the music business, where--for me, anyway, when I just feel like the right things come along when the time is right, and the right people come along when the time is right.        continue

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