by Jim Kelly 

Who: Jay Clark & The Jones
What: Southern-(Ontario)-fried alt-country that travels well
Where: Toronto, Ontario
To Contact: 59 Roncesvalles Avenue, #7, Toronto, Ontario, M6R 2X5; Tel: (416) 534-1103; E-mail: jayclarkandthejones@sympatico.ca; Web site: www.jayclarkandthejones.com

Formed in 1997, this Toronto-based alt-country band consists of Jay Clark Reid on lead vocals and guitar, Bobby Spencer on bass/vocals, Ian Philp on guitar/vocals, Kenny Yoshioka on harmonica and Joe Iannuzzi on drums. The group has been making a name for themselves around the Toronto bar scene and they’ve just recently released their first full-length CD Grenville County Blues. With feisty acoustic strumming, cranky lead riffs, weepy slide and steel guitar and bluesy harmonica to give it that southern-fried sound, these boys tie together strands of rebel country-rock from many sources: threads from Gram Parsons, patches from the Stones’ most country-ish moments on Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street and wiffs of Waylon and Willie tearin’ up the back roads. According to chief songwriter Jay Clark Reid, the album was actually conceived on back roads and byways. “The car on [the cover of ] the record is my car. My girlfriend and I drive around Ontario incessantly. This record’s kind of a concept record, [seen] through the eyes of the Great Lakes area, through the eyes of history. It’s sort of a travelogue.” And in the fine tradition of the travelogue, these songs take you there, and make you glad you went. Check out the band’s web page for some MP3 samples. If they continue the way they’re going, it won’t be long before the rest of the alt-country crowd will be trying to keep up with Jay Clark & The Jones.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 8th, 2002 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Showcase. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.