Biography
So, I’m a songwriter and guitar player and a singer. I’ve recorded four or five CDs worth of material over the years and played lots of different venues — from the Kennedy Center to street corners — as a solo and with bands. Most of the bands were newgrassy, Texas Swingy, folky, and/or country rockish. I’m still a solo singer-songwriter type and still singing with The Swing States Road Show.
TOP 10 of the Mountain Stage New Song festival in 2004
Semi-Finals of the Mountain Stage New Song festival in 2005
Honorable Mention in 2009 (Moody Blues') Mike Pinders 'Songwar' songwriting competition
Multiple 'Honorable Mentions' in Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Competitions
Top 3 of the Portland Music Association's Songwriting Competition
Winner of Best Folk & Best Latin categories, Portland Music Association's Songwriting Competition
Best of Baltimore Songwriters Assoc. 10 Year Anniversary (juried) CD "Songs from a Charmed City"
National Airplay on NPR
Top Sellers on CDBaby (2007)
LEA JONES - PERFORMANCES & REVIEWS
"Your CD has not left my car stereo for a week!"
WYPR-FM, Carol Madow, Baltimore
"A fine singer and a fine, fine songwriter."
Tony Sica, WTMD, Baltimore
"A soothing and wide ranging voice, an imaginative songwriting ability, and a great wry-dry sense of humor..."
Eugene Folklore Society
"One of those natural performers who is able to establish good feelings with the audience from the first moment.. a show that seems effortless and is a total joy."
Corvallis Folklore Society
"Fans of folk-influenced singers (Shawn Colvin, David Wilcox, et al) will have another favorite if they wisely choose to introduce themselves to this talented neighbor."
Willamette Week, Portland, OR
"This man was some performer.. He sang a wide-ranging set of original tunes with a dry witty stage presence that had the audience eating out of his hand."
Willamette Valley Folk Festival Frank Gosar
The Kennedy Center & the National Mall (DC), Bumbershoot and Folklife Festivals (Seattle), Cellar Stage (Balto), Willamette Valley and Corvallis Folk Festivals (Oregon), Cats Eye Pub (Balto), showcases at the mighty Bluebird (Nashville) and Unity and Unitarian churches all over the US....
Instrumentation
Solo Lea Jones: Guitar, voice, no shoes.
The Swing States Road Show: Guitar, electric bass, percussion, and three kickass vocalists.
Discography
The current Road Show is working on their first CD. I'm putting my first two studio albums (released on cassette back in the day) onto a single CD this fall. Then we'll move onto the NEW stuff, which is being birthed. Ouch.
"Housecleaning" and "Swing States" by The Swing States Road Show ('06 and '04 respectively), both on CDBaby.com.
'Selector Switch On (Rock and Roll)' - a Best Seller on CDBaby - a rockin' documentary soundtrack album.... providing a "grunt's eye view" of the Vietnam war. Recorded in 1992 and released in '07.
'More of Everything' (on cassette - '92)
'Feels Like Love to Me' (on cassette - '90)
'Against the Wall: Songs of Recovery' (on cassette - '88)
Buffalo Romeo, by Lea Jones - '05 - which is over on eFolkMusic.com, sort of a "Best of" all my old tunes plus some more recent ones....
Links
| http://www.leajonesmusic.com |