In case you didn’t know, the blues can be found at the base of almost every music genre there exists today. That is why our featured artist this week is a musician and a pure blues master.

JW-Jones is a blues musician, he started on the drums before seeing B.B. King in concert and starting to play the bass. From there he switched to the electric guitar so he could play exactly like his blues idols who mostly played guitar. JW is a pure blues player, which means even though similar musicians learn all the theories and scales, pure blues players will always base their playing on feel, no matter how much they might know musically. This is very evident in JW’s playing, if you’ve heard him, you can simply hear the difference. Everything is improvised but the natural melody he and his band the “JW-Jones blues band” have created. The band has just celebrated their tenth year together and they have toured in 4 continents, 13 countries and 200 cities. They have also played 800 shows in those ten years, a remarkable feat considering it averages out to more than 100 shows per year or almost 1 show every 3 days!

JW is still a young player too (28 years old) so expect him to be around with the greats for a while. He currently resides in Ottawa where you can find him playing at the Rainbow Bistro at least a few times during the year.

JW-Jones is signed to the “Northern Blues Music” label and has recorded 5 albums :

Year, Album Title, Label, Guests

-2000, Defibrillatin, (Blues), NorthernBlues Music (no guests)

-2002, Bogart’s Bounce, (Blues), NorthernBlues Music, Kim Wilson (harp, vocals), Gene Taylor (piano), Roxanne Potvin (vocals)

-2004, My Kind of Evil, (Blues), NorthernBlues Music, Colin James (vocals), Kim Wilson (harp, vocals, producer)

-2006, Kissing in 29 Days, (Blues), NorthernBlues Music, David “Fathead” Newman (saxophone)

-2008, Bluelisted, (Blues), NorthernBlues Music, Little Charlie Baty (guitar, harp), Junior Watson (guitar), Richard Innes (drums), Larry Taylor (bass), Liner notes by Dan Aykroyd

JW has also been nominated for many notable awards, such as : Album of the year (2), Guitarist of the year (2), Electric act of the year (2), and actually won the 2005 – Maple Blues Awards Elictrica act of the year award (national) !

If you want to know more about the band or JW-Jones himself, check out his web site linked here
Or check out one of his shows, he’s always ready to answer a few questions between sets. 360 blog was lucky enough to snag an interview with Jones which you can see here.

JW-Jones also offers lessons for players at any level so if you’re in town when he is it’s surely one of the best lesson session’s you’ll have.

Thanks for the interview JW!

Info: Personal, Wiki