For Spirit’s Furnace, the third release from the Brooklyn-based The Bones of J.R. Jones, Jonathon Linaberry returns with his unique blend of folk style blues, early jazz and roots music over a set of dark and impassioned songs about misfortune, hard living, struggles and overcoming them. As with his last album, 2014’s Dark Was the Yearling, Linaberry plays every instrument on the entire record, making this an impressive feat of a primarily one man band. While all nine songs on Spirits Furnace are original, they sound like they could have been covers of obscure pre-war tracks. Notable tracks include: the haunting “Bless Your Soul”; the rocking blues track “The Heat”; the gorgeous “Wedding Song”; and the southern spiritual “Dry Dirt (Stripped).” Spirit’s Furnace is an engaging listen steeped in traditional roots inspired blues/folk but with a contemporary musical sensibility that keeps thing fresh and new again.
SIMILAR | William Elliott Whitmore, Scott H. Biram, The Devil Makes Three, Little Hurricane, The Handsome Family