Dennis Jones
Blues guitar heroes are like a major hurricane that blows down everything in their path, changing the musical landscape as surely as category 5 tropical storms alter the terra firma. Since Stevie Ray Vaughan perished tragically in 1990, the winds of change have been brief squalls at best ~ until now. Dennis Jones, with his third release Pleasure & Pain (Blue Rock Records), has the explosive guitar power, voice and songs to make his contemporaries quake in their boots.
Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland. The drums were his first passion and they still form his relentless grooves. He started playing guitar at 13, took a few informal lessons from a friend who taught him “House of the Rising Sun” and was rocking out with his Marshall stack two years later in a band with older cats. His tastes evolved in tandem with his skills and the rock of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan and Santana influenced him profoundly, along with 60’s guitar greats Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Jimmy Page. Combined with blues legends B.B., Albert and Freddie King and the invincible R&B artists such as Al Green, James Brown and Motown, the result is a human music machine who can singe the strings of his Strat while singing deep from his soul.
From 1977-80, Jones was in the service and stationed in Germany where he gained further experience with a variety of bands. In 1985, he made Los Angeles his home and headed a Led Zeppelin-meets-Funkadelic band called Blackhead that attracted industry attention. In the early 90’s, Jones’ formed the Dennis Jones Band, followed his passion and made a commitment to house rockin’ blues.
Pleasure & Pain contains 11 blazing intense original numbers. “Brand New Day” does not just swing the shuffle; it kicks it all over the lot as Jones exhorts “Dance your blues away!”. “Don’t Worry About Me” adds an element of contemporary vocal harmony, reminiscent of the Sopranos theme song, to the booty-bumping minor funk. He engages in some winking braggadocio by singing “no beg, no way” in “I’m Good” over the hardest pounding shuffle rhythm highlighted by his stirring, punishing picking. Jones changes tack in “Kill the Pain” with a slow, raunchy boogie exposing the futility of cocaine abuse and featuring low down country blues licks elevated to inflammatory levels. “Blue Over You” finds him playing infectious, funky lead/rhythm guitar, with a nod to the Voodoo Child, in a hook-laden number that has hit radio potential. “Sunday Morning Rain” takes yet a different turn as a pop rock ballad that would not be out of place in Nashville as Jones croons his melancholy tale of romantic woe. The driving minor key rocker “Home Tonight” displays an urgency that permeates the entire album.
“Try Not to Lie” rocks the blues, like a certain trio from Texas, as Jones addresses a common theme with the ironic, “If you try not to lie, I will try to do the same.” “I Want It Yesterday” is a nasty slice of ominous, heavy riff rock while “Him or Me” channels Jimi in an impressive display of trio rock that rumbles and roars with fury. Closing the astounding set is the charging and lusty musical locomotive called “Hot Sauce” that fittingly has Jones quoting “Third Rock from the Sun” with the dynamic “call and response” frame work.
When not writing songs for his own use, Jones dedicates his time to writing songs for his friends and guitar heroes. Guitar Shorty in his next album coming out on Alligator Records 2009/2010 is covering one such song, “Temporary Man”.
It is risky to make predictions, but if anyone has a legitimate shot at filing the blues guitar hero void it is Dennis Jones. He has the head, heart and hands to do it.
