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Jawbone and Jolene, Roots/Blues. Latest cd is in the Top 30 at IBC for Best Self-Produced!!
We are based around Little Rock and have played a lot of places across the state, into Mississippi and even Louisiana. We are a singer/songwriter duo, Jolene on guitar and vocals and Jawbone, on harp and vocals. we both write lyrics and we arrange our material ourselves.
We like to show respect to the Originators of this taproot genre of music and we sometimes write in the style of RJ, Hooker, Memphis Minnie, and others.
Our focus this year aside from doing this cd has been to do sets at benefits, play on the street and at the farmers' market, and generally try and support good causes with our music. We are also in discussion with several festival organizers about the coming year.
We are fully equipped to play a date in most any small to medium room, with amps, mics, p.a. etc. As much as we love to spread the joy of real and sincere music, we do have expenses. We can play locally for free but if it involves travel we sometimes need some gas$$ etc.
we have a page at http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
Some original songs and videos can be found there as well as a link to our cd distributor.
Comments
Koo j & j. Congrats
Ok, end of the line for Jaw and Jo. the top 5 were picked:
BLUE LUNCH, CLEVELAND, OH; SAXOPHONE SHOOTOUT II......
BAD INFLUENCE, FREDERICK, MD; UNDER THE INFLUENCE.....
MIKEY JR, JERSEY SHORE; IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL....
DAVE KELLER, RHODE ISLAND; WHERE I'M COMING FROM....
SUZIE VINNICK, TORONTO, CANADA; ME N MABEL....
We want to congratulate all the folks who made it to the top 5. We prefer to believe that we were #6!
From where we're sitting, getting to the top 30 WORLD WIDE was just awesome for a couple of gray headed part time musicians. the cats we were up against were full time players with thousands of dollars worth of gear and recording stuff.
Our cd initially cost $65 to record in a friend's spare room, through 2 mics and 2 channels, into a MAC computer. Mastering was done free by another friend.
For a total GRASS ROOTS effort to go the distance it has, that's just a life time achievement for us personally. Sure, we'd have loved to keep going, but there is no bitterness here. We have been in such good company all this while. We thank all you well-wishers for sending your good vibes our way.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
J and J,
It's all in the feel. You've got to deliver the magic. And You guys do that as well as anyone.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
We've been listening to our peers in the part of the top 30 who didn't make it to top 5 status- the secondary 24? The runners-up? Call them and us what you will, we are in amazingly good company!! But what is REALLY amazing to us is, that our humble submission went as far as it did when held up to some of those competitors. If you look at the competition for Best self Produced CD, it has the solos/duos and bands all in one big pool, there is no separation like in the performance competition. So what that means is, your individual sound must really jump out very strong to even make the first cut. Which we did!! Some of these cats- one can guess- had some real deal superior recording talent and gear behind them, and by looking at the videos it's obvious that some of them are working pros or semi-pros who have been playing together for decades.
So, for our humble duo, age a bit over 5 years, to be placed in with these cats, it's something mind-blowing in its way. This has served to fire us up to really get moving on the next cd. We have several of the songs lined up for the next project but it's still a long way off. We are currently working on the bare bones arrangements and planning a sort of scratcbh recording session to get something we can pass out to the guest musicians who will have parts on some of the songs. Our plan is to expand some, into a full electric band with several added parts, doing some of our originals as reprises and some brand new material as well. While we're always going to do the duo format we wanted to explore a bigger sound and more complex layering for various reasons. This is something I have had experience with and my gut tells me we can do a meaningful piece of work, bring in some of the people who have had a profound influence on us locally, and maybe make a splash up the line someplace and time.
Stay tuned for Jaw and Jo's next move. It promises to be big and bold!