“I like to mix genres of music,” added Singleton, “I like country, rock, bluegrass. I like elements of all of them. I have to really like music before I’ll buy it, the kind that has some of this and some of that, and good songwriting. Same goes for performance. You’re mixing all those styles together.”
Singleton’s band, The Grove, has recently begun playing a set of these original songs during their performance at Barley’s in Jackson, on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Judging from the crowd’s response, they have definitely stuck a nerve.
A mix of country, rock, and blues, the Jones/Singleton sound evokes the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Band, Van Morrison- and delivers it with an upbeat style. They write intensely personal stories- of love lost and found, of losing oneself and trying to get back on positive ground, of taking joy in the simple things in life, of spiritual longing and questioning- and Singleton sings them in his signature style with an honest passion straight from the heart. It’s the kind of music that music lover will listen to over and over, until every word, every nuance is committed to memory.
Recently, The Grove performed the same set at 3rd and Lindsey, a Nashville club. Jones was in the audience, along with several industry moguls, to gauge the audience’s reception. “I heard these guys put on a show,” he said, “and I don’t know if I’ve ever been as proud in my life of anything. They brought down the house.”
“I think what happened is we presented a group of songs by the same writers, the same musicians, and the crowd responded to it as a body of work,” Singleton added.
What’s next? “I like doing what I’m, doing, I’d just like to make little more cash. I’d like to get a song cut,” offered Singleton.
“I’d like to have enough money to go in the studio and experiment and do whatever we feel like, to have that freedom to do what we like instead of what some manager wants us to do. I want to be respected by my peers as a songwriters,” added Jones.
That wish might not be too long being fulfilled. When Roger Murrah, a publisher and hall of fame songwriter in Nashville, heard the latest Jones/Singleton demo, he declared it to be the most refreshing sound he had heard in twenty years.
Gentlemen, start your engines.
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