Karen Jonas has come a long way as a solo artist. Just a few years ago, she was a singer-songwriter trying to get her foot in the door, and now she’s a full-time touring musician who shares the stage with guitarist Tim Bray. Jonas and Bray had only been playing together a few months when she recorded her first solo album, “Oklahoma Lottery,” in early 2014.
“We got a lot of coverage we weren’t really expecting,” said Jonas. “We really made it for our friends here and our fans that we already had. We made it to sell to the people that we know. We ended up sending it all over the world and getting coverage all over the world. We heard from Australia, Germany, people in the Netherlands.”
That attention led to a lot more gigs, which sent Jonas and Bray travelling all over the country. Their second album, “Country Songs,” will be released on October 16th with a show at the Kenmore Inn. Jonas is constantly writing new material and “Country Songs” was recorded over a year ago from material she and Bray practiced during their heavy touring schedule in 2014 and 2015.
“I write a lot of material and it lives in my notebook until I need it,” said Jonas. “I think I’ve had this material on the front burner since we recorded it. I write stuff and don’t really focus on it until it’s time for it to have a life outside of my notebook.”
It’s easy to hear the appeal of the partnership between Jonas and Bray. Her emotive voice combines perfectly with the moody twang of his orange Gretsch hollow-body guitar. The duo met when Bray wandered into one of Jonas’s solo gigs in 2013.
“I didn’t know who Karen was at all,” said Bray. “I sat down and listened to her whole set. I thought it was incredible and I went and told her so. I sent her a Facebook message just to say I like what you’re doing and keep it up.”
Jonas remembered the moment.
“Andrew Hellier said, ‘That was Tim Bray back there. You probably want to know that guy,’ ” she said.
“Then she sent me an email saying she was putting an album together and wanted to know if I wanted to play on it,” said Bray.
Their partnership is explored in depth on “Country Songs,” as they had time since the first album to fine tune their sound.
“We just knew each other a lot better,” said Bray. “I think she purposely wrote and arranged a lot of the songs with me in mind—and what we do together—and just capitalized on that. ‘Oklahoma Lottery’ was thumbnail sketches of her playing guitar and singing and I was trying to put parts on top of that. I think it’s a little more of an integration this time around.”
“Country Songs” features a full band, with Jordan Medas on bass, Jack O’Dell or Jason Cizdziel on drums and solo contributions by fiddle virtuoso Eddie Dickerson and lap steel master Jay Starling. Despite those album embellishments, Jonas and Bray continue to tour mostly as a duo.
“A lot of people comment, ‘we thought it was going to be this little folky thing and it was a big sound covering a lot of ground,’ ” said Bray. We opened for Alabama and their crew said, ‘holy cow, I can’t believe you guys are doing this as a two-piece.’ ”
“Country Songs” offers a variety of moods, from the upbeat “Keep Your Hands To Yourself,” to more moody pieces like “The Garden.”
“That one was Eddie [Dickerson]’s music that I stole and put lyrics on top of,” said Jonas. “He had rearranged a song, ‘Rose Of San Antone,’ into a real slow and moody thing. I told him, ‘you should write words to it. It would be an awesome song’. He said, ‘No I don’t want to do that.’ Well I’m going to do that. I had his permission and I credit him on the album.”
The title song is a sly nod to Jonas’s own late conversion to a love of classic country songs. She got the idea after doing an interview where the host asked if she had grown up listening to country. Jonas admitted she only acquired the taste in the last few years, to which the host said, “that makes sense, you have to get your heart broken before you can appreciate those twangy songs.” That line made it into the song, which also name checks Dwight Yoakam in a humorous way.
The album closes with “Yankee Doodle Went Home,” which is a new take on the American folk tune and possibly a metaphor for our dark national mood.
“That’s one we really enjoy playing in a listening room,” said Bray. “I didn’t really get how effective that was until we played in a place where people were quietly listening. In the song, people get it and figure out what we’re really talking about.”
