Justin Jones Little Fox

In such a fast paced and often times soulless city, DC area native Justin Jones has composed a refreshingly soulful and genuine collection of tunes on his latest blues-influenced Americana album, "The Little Fox EP." Straight from his blatantly huge heart come six bluesy tracks addressing the ever relevant themes of heartbreak, redemption, disappointment, and the long mysterious road ahead. In his opening track, "Little Fox," Jones makes no effort to hide the fact that he is (or has been) a troubled man, something that many artists do but in a much less genuine fashion. In the tightly composed premiere track, he repeatedly alludes to "second chances", "haunting memories" and "hopeless feelings."

It's also in the opening track that we first hear Jones' Dylanesque harmonica scream a first whistle of agony, immediately before Jones himself proclaims that he's "gotta get out of here." Where exactly he desires to escape to is up to us. One good guess is DC itself - in track three, "The Gutter," Jones' feelings of discontent pervade seemingly nearly all elements of his life, including his home city, which he calls (if he's referring to DC) the "city of swine." Slightly slower, but equally powerful, "The Gutter" very blatantly refers to a sadder time in Jone's life, a time when he was "soaking, freezing" with his "mind beyond reason." It takes a very humbled and modest man to talk about his misfortunes or troubled history, let alone compose songs about them! Kudos to Jones for releasing such powerful and reflective auto-biographical songs.

Because backup musicians behind brilliant singer-songwriters often go under-appreciated, I'd also like to mention how tightly composed and powerful the backup musicians are, including the piano, bass, rhythm guitar, drums and whoever it is that rips the awesome solo on track six, "Dry River," without a doubt my favorite track on the album. If you (like I) find yourself too often bogged down with an over-saturation of abstract indie-electro-synth-hop-pop, Justin Jones just might be your remedy. Especially on a rainy day. His relentless screams for satisfaction will leave you relating to him just enough to want to hear more. Keep it up Justin.