Performing a lean, spectral brand of music informed by vintage blues, folk, rock, and Appalachian sounds, the Bones of J.R. Jones is a project from singer, guitarist, and songwriter Jonathon Linaberry. As befits Linaberry‘s past as a punk rocker, the Bones of J.R. Jones is music that’s steeped in energy and no-frills punch, while the songs and his lyrical outlook are fashioned after the traditions of roots music, embracing the elemental strength of both styles. Linaberry debuted the Bones of J.R. Jones in 2014 with Dark Was the Yearling, a mostly acoustic set that honored his blues influences, while 2018’s Ones to Keep Close dialed up the guitars for a harder, edgier effect, and 2023’s Slow Lightning was an impressive mix of the muscular and the atmospheric.

Jonathan Linaberry was born in central New York State in 1982, and was introduced to making music when his mother signed him up for piano lessons when he was six. He also studied trombone for a while, and when he was 14, he gave up on the piano and switched to the guitar. After completing high school, Linaberry moved to Brooklyn to study art and design education at the Pratt Institute. He soon became enamored of New York City’s punk rock scene, drawn by the raw passion of the music, and joined a band called Trouble Loves Me, who released an EP, Eyes Closed, Fingers Crossed, in 2002. When he was 19, Linaberry became interested in acoustic blues, gospel, and roots music after digging into some archival albums given to him by his parents. He spent a few years playing with the acoustic group the Feverfew (who released the album Apparitions in 2004) and some other like-minded acts before he struck out on his own in 2012 under the banner the Bones of J.R. Jones. Playing one-man band style, and stomping out rhythm while picking guitar or banjo, Linaberry released the first Bones of J.R. Jones EP, The Wildness, in 2012, and 2014 brought his first full-length album, Dark Was the Yearling.

In April 2016, Linaberry released the second album from the Bones of J.R. Jones, the more layered Spirit’s Furnace, and then 2018’s Ones to Keep Close, which upped the ante with greater use of electric instruments and additional musicians. Linaberry still toured one-man-band style for the most part, making his way through the United States and Europe several times and headlining smaller venues while opening bigger shows for the Wallflowers and the Devil Makes Three. His song “Good Friend of Mine” was used in the 2015 comedy Vacation, and his music also appeared on the German television serial Culpa: Niemand ist ohne Schuld, as well as the American series NCIS: Los Angeles, Elementary, Longmire, and Suits. Filmmaker Taika Waititi, whose screenplay for the film JoJo Rabbit earned him an Academy Award, reached out to Linaberry to score a special extended commercial for Amazon’s 2022 Holiday sales campaign. In June 2023, the Bones of J.R. Jones released the single “Heaven Help Me,” which was the first preview of their fourth full-length album, Slow Lightning. Issued in October 2023, the LP was produced by Kiyoshi Matsuyama, who had played guitar with Linaberry on earlier projects and worked with the group the London Souls.