Diana Jones is an American folk singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee, with roots in the United States and a catalogue associated with Yarjones Music. Born in 1965, she develops a style shaped by folk, country, alt-country and singer-songwriter traditions, and her songs draw on themes of love, loss and redemption.

Background and development

Jones is adopted as an infant and raised in New York. She leaves home at 15 to search for her roots, and later reconnects with her birth family and the music of the Eastern Tennessee hills. Before that reunion, she is already drawn to artists such as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. After establishing a folk career in the late 1990s in the Austin music scene, she returns to the northeast to recover from the death of her grandfather, Robert Lee Maranville, who performs with Chet Atkins and others when he is younger.

Songwriting and recordings

Jones begins writing from a deeper personal place during this period of isolation and reflection. Her debut album My Remembrance of You is recorded at Signature Sounds Studio with Mark Thayer and contains 11 songs written from that retreat. The record features Ferron on harmony vocals, Jay Ungar on fiddle, and Duke Levine on mandolin and various guitars. The album draws on old-time music, country blues and mountain music, and it brings her wider critical attention.

Recognition and performances

Jones wins several songwriting competitions, including the New Folk competition at the 2006 Kerrville Folk Festival. Her song “Pony” is nominated for Song of the Year by the North American Folk Alliance, and she is nominated as Emerging Artist of the Year for 2006. My Remembrance of You is listed on several critics’ top albums of 2006 and is named the Chicago Tribune’s number one country record of the year.

She shares stages with Martina McBride, Del McCoury Band, Guy Clark, Odetta, Old Crow Medicine Show and John Gorka, and appears at festivals including Philly, Newport, American and Rhythm & Roots. She also performs at Cambridge Folk Festival and Galway Arts Festival, and tours in support of Richard Thompson at venues across Europe.

Style and themes

Jones’s writing is often described through comparisons with Emily Dickinson, Loretta Lynn, Iris DeMent and Gillian Welch. Her songs move between mournful laments and forceful narrative pieces, and her work is marked by direct storytelling rooted in folk and country traditions.