The Bones of J.R. Jones

Growing up, Jonathon Linaberry was obsessed with the radio.

“I remember sitting there at night, glued to the boombox, cassette player ready to record
whenever my favorite songs came on,” he recalls. “There was something so thrilling about it,
something romantic that I think we’ve lost now that everything’s available at our fingertips. I
wanted to find a way to get back to that place, to recapture those feelings of excitement and
anticipation and possibility.”

Linaberry does precisely that on Radio Waves, his sixth studio album as The Bones Of J.R. Jones.
Recorded in Toronto with producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas), the collection is moody
and hypnotic, steeped in the sonic landscape of the ’80s and ’90s as it excavates the past with
equal parts nostalgia and curiosity. The arrangements are utterly entrancing here, built on the
tension between acoustic instruments and retro synthesizers, and Linaberry’s performances are
raw and visceral, at times aching in their vulnerability. Put it all together and you’ve got a
poignant exploration of memory and longing delivered by a relentless searcher, a revelatory
work of personal reflection steeped in the endless beauty, pain, and chaos of youth.
“I’ve never really resonated with the idea of ‘the good old days,'” Linaberry reflects. “Your
understanding of the past and your relationship with it change as you get older, and I’ve always
been more interested in the evolution of those feelings than in wearing any kind of rose-
colored glasses.”

Born and raised in central New York, Linaberry got his start playing in hardcore and punk bands
before becoming enamored with the field recordings of Alan Lomax, who documented rural
American blues, folk, and gospel musicians throughout the 1930s and ’40s. Inspired by the
unvarnished honesty of those vintage performances, Linaberry launched The Bones of J.R.
Jones in 2012 and, operating as a fully independent artist, began releasing a series of critically
acclaimed albums and EPs that would land his songs in a slew of films and television shows
(including True Detective, Suits, Daredevil, Longmire, and Graceland) and lead to countless tours
across the US and Europe (including stops everywhere from Telluride Blues to Hardly Strictly
Bluegrass). Along the way, Linaberry also shared bills with the likes of The Wallflowers, G. Love,
and The Devil Makes Three, soundtracked an Amazon commercial helmed by Oscar-winning
director Taika Waititi, and earned praise from Billboard, American Songwriter, Under the Radar,
and more.

Doors open 7pm