The opening line to Spirit’s Furance, the second album by Rosendale, NY’s The Bones Of J.R. Jones, is, “I’ve got 13 kinds of blues/I know them all by name.” This declaration proves accurate as one makes their way through the rest of Spirit’s Furnace. The songwriter behind J.R. Jones, Jonathon Linaberry, has indeed cultivated an inventory of different and unique approaches to playing the blues. The electric tracks wouldn’t be out of place on albums by The Black Keys or The White Stripes while the acoustic tracks have a quiet fury to them inspired by the great blues masters of the past like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lighting Hopkins. You can catch him at the record release show for Spirit’s Furnace on April 15 at the Mercury Lounge.
