"I'm at a juncture in my career and my life where the many threads of my experience have come together," says Jono Manson. "And I hope that makes for a good story."
It does. And Jono tells that story, brilliantly and unforgettably, on The Slight Variations-a record that's literally been a lifetime in the making. Jono Manson will release The Slight Variations on
October 14, 2016.
At its core, Variations is an amalgamation of ideas and genres that span Manson's four-plus decades in the music industry, a time that's seen the musician lauded equally as a songwriter, performer, sideman, recording engineer and producer-as well as a godfather of the New York music scene of the mid-1980s that produced the likes of Joan Osborne, Blues Traveler,
The Holmes Brothers and the Spin Doctors.
The album displays Manson's roots in the feral NYC music scene of the late 70s but also touches on his modern day journey as a father and a man increasingly worried about the health of the planet.
Regarding the former, there's "Rough and Tumble", a bar band brawler that alludes to Manson's earliest experiences in New York clubs, fronting bands like The Worms and the
Mighty Sweetones. His present day travails are detailed in songs like the piano-led "Footprints On the Moon". Here, Manson found himself inspired by a book he was reading to his daughter about the solar system. "There was a chapter describing the moon, and about how with no wind up there, those footprints we made are going to stay. And based on where mankind is going...at some point, that might be all that we leave behind." he says.
Hear "Footprints On The Moon" at Soundcloud | Spotify | iTunes | Apple Music.
Over the years, Jono's performed pretty much everywhere-from Max's Kansas City to Madison Square Garden-with pretty much everyone, from Bo Diddley to Pete Seeger. The album features a number of past and present collaborations, including two songs co-written with Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors ("an association from my New York days: we now sometimes tour as a duo of not-so-sensitive singer-songwriters"), as well as songs written with Manson's wife Caline Welles. Bandwise, the album features contributions from long-time cohorts Mark Clark, Steve Lindsay and keyboard/violin phenom Jason Crosby, as well as members of Brothers Keeper, a Colorado roots rock band that Manson has worked with extensively, and guitarist Kevin Trainor (another ongoing Manson collaborator from the early days in NYC).
Speaking of collaborations, Manson remains extremely busy recording and producing other musical projects, ranging from legendary Italian rockers Gang (aka "The Clash of Italy") to a sufi folk rock band called The Sketches (whom he recorded with in Pakistan, a story in itself!) to a bevy of American singer-songwriters, including David Berkeley, Jaime Michaels, Tao Seeger and American Idol alum Crystal Bowersox.
He also just renovated The Kitchen Sink Recording Studio in Santa Fe, where he is chief engineer and recorded much of Variations. When not occupied with his own productions, Manson's studio plays host to a wide variety of artists, including the likes of Amanda Palmer, Tom Russell, and T Bone Burnett.
While he's already forty-some years into the music biz, Manson thinks Variations shows he's only now reaching his peak. "I feel like I have more in me now than I ever have," he says. "I managed to survive and tell the tale. With this record, I get to recount some of those stories-about what I've learned, and what I hope to see in the future."
The Slight Variations Track Listing:
1 - Trees
2 - Rough and Tumble
3 - I'm Ready
4 - Wildflower
5 - The Sea Is The Same
6 - Footprints On The Moon
7 - The Slight Variations
8 - What Would I Not Do
9 - Brother's Keeper
10 - So The Story Goes
11 - When The Time Is Right
12 - Little Bird Song
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