Kathryn Jones – Yesterday’s News

SWINGING COWGIRL LAUNCHES DEBUT ALBUM YESTERDAY’S NEWS

After a busy year writing, touring, and performing with country music star Clelia Adams, Dolphin Awards “Best Lyrics” winner Kathryn Jones has released her independently produced album Yesterday’s News. “The title was inspired by the 14 year hiatus I took from singing and writing to focus on my family,” Kathryn explains. “I’d long wondered how I was going to fit back into the music industry – was I just going to be ‘yesterday’s news’?” Originally from Kempsey and now living near Byron Bay with her husband and four children, Kathryn’s album gives her audience a heartfelt yet playful insight into her dynamic life. Written on the eve of meeting her biological father for the first time last March, “George’s Song” beautifully captures the heartache of a life lived without the love of a parent. “This song was written two days before I met my Bosnian father, George,” Kathryn recalls. “Later I discovered that not only was he a farmer, but his father was a Bosnian country and western singer.” The track “Dark Sunless Day” was inspired from a dream Kathryn had about a good friend who had abruptly left town. “I woke in the middle of the night and the words came tumbling out,” she says. “The next week I ran into the mother of my friend who told me that the day I had the dream, her daughter had left town without explanation, leaving her devastated. Eerie stuff!” Now that she has finished her album, Kathryn will complete her E.P. with international producer, Alan Parkes. “Allan was not only Cliff Richards’ acclaimed musical director for 25 years but also worked with musical greats such as 10CC, Olivia Newton John, Brian Cadd and Elaine Page,” she says excitedly. Described as having a passionate, penetrating voice that blurs the boundaries between folk and country, Kathryn is a regular fixture on the East Coast musical circuit since launching her successful debut EP Oh Brother Come Home in 2007. After nabbing the “Best Lyrics” award at the 2009 Dolphin Awards, Kathryn continues to impress critics and audiences alike with her soul driven tunes and heartfelt lyrics.

KATHRYN JONES BIO

Kathryn Jones launched her music career with a rock band at the tender age 14 and by 17 was touring Australia’s East Coast with a fake I.D. and gutsy determination. Critics and audiences alike were impressed with her solid, charismatic performances but it didn’t stop her hitting the pause button for 14 years to start a family.

Kathryn returned with a bang when she launched her debut EP Oh Brother Come Home in 2007, which earned her a Best Female Vocal nomination two years later at the Dolphin Awards for the haunting ballad ‘The Living Dead’. Kathryn did take home the Best Written Lyrics award for the track ‘Oh Brother Come Home’, which was written for her estranged brother who she hadn’t seen in ten years. With a voice that penetrates your heart like an arrow, this sassy streetwise performer seduces audiences with her irresistible cheek, home grown humour and raw emotion. Describing her music as “the folk end of country/the country end of folk”, Kathryn’s catchy, soul driven tunes envelope the listener and set a course for an intimate experience of pleasure, adventure and sensory exposure. Kathryn Jones performs regularly in the Northern Rivers, and opened the 2010 Tamworth Country Music Festival with Clelia Adams and the River Valley Express.

Kathryn Jones – Yesterday’s News CD Review by Ian Dearden

With an all-star cast of supporting musicians, a dazzling variety of musical styles, eleven original songs (as well as a cover of Hal David/Paul Hampton’s Sea of Heartbreak), Kathryn Jones’ debut album, “Yesterday’s News” is delightful, charming, entrancing and (at times) just a little sassy!
Bringing together elements of western swing, jump blues, country, folk, gospel, slack key and rockabilly, in a genre Kathryn dubs “coastal country”, her distinctive “voice” (in both a vocal and lyrical sense) draws together these disparate musical strands to great effect.
Hailing from northern NSW, and having devoted much of the last 15 years to raising a large family, Kathryn has returned to her teenage musical passions with a vengeance!
Amidst the potpourri of styles, there’s the folkie sounds of George’s Song and Dark Summer’s Day, the spirit of Cab Calloway channelled into Bad Boy Benny, the gently swaying ukuleles underpinning Toffee Apples, and that delightful reading of Sea of Heartbreak, dedicated to the first man she ever loved (her dad Lenny).
The arrangements (instrumental and vocal) are exquisite, and the production, courtesy of bass player Slim Pickens (who also engineered the album) and Kathryn, is assured, sympathetic and never gets in the way of Kathryn’s distinctive and delightful vocals.
Having said that, the production leaves space throughout for the various stand out soloists, including Kirk Lorange on resonator guitar, Andrew Mills on clarinet and Cleis Pearce on violin.
What a wealth of talent there is floating around northern NSW!!
You can find out lots more at www.kathrynjonesmusic.com, including workshops Kathryn runs entitled “Mothers in Music”, where she no doubt passes on some of what she’s learnt from her own fascinating journey.