Description
La Rosa, La Calavera is an album by the American singer and songwriter Kat Jones, released on Blue Velvet Music in 2004. This album was recorded over two long weeks in Huntington Beach, California; with Frank Lenz and Richard Swift producing.
Kat Jones is backed by a session band featuring Richard Swift on keyboards on several songs, Josh Dooley of Map fame provides guitar on some songs, Eli Thompson from Everest on bass, and Frank Lenz on drums.
Kat Jones was one of those delightful, unexpected discoveries that makes listening to independent music so rewarding. From Fresno, California, she has been playing for a few years now, but La Rosa, La Calavera is Jones’ first full length release on Jeff Cloud’s Velvet Blue Music label.
The first notes of the organ-infused album opener «The Night is a Veil» might be enough to make the listener think that Kat Jones is going for some kind of strange, quirky rock experience. Don’t get any false impressions, however. The eerie sound of this song is not returned to as the album shifts into high gear and is only uphill the rest of the way. Kat Jones is a genuine singer/songwriter who has been influenced by music styles ranging from folk to rock to country, but she has found her own way of fusing her influences together for a sound all her own. Fans of Aimee Mann should go for this album without a second thought.
Kat Jones is at her very best on the slow, moving ballads which thankfully the album is full of. On «Sleeping Winter Fool» she pleads “How can I save you from yourself?/ I scream and I try to save you.” Heartache is an emotion Ms. Jones has no problem in tackling with songs like «Letters» and the deeply affecting «Great Scottish Hurricane» (“I sit here trying to pull out all the glass/ Splinters in my hands left from the past/ Someday I know I will be free”). The sincere, smooth vocals bring the heartfelt songs to the listener’s ears like some kind of healing balm.
The album comes to an easy close with «Elliot» and «The Case». The former is a soothing ballad of longing for the future and questioning of the past (“But I can’t understand why/ I know I never will anyway”). The latter is a hymn expressing trust in God through all the trials of life.
The only complaint I could possibly conjure up about this album is that I wish there were more songs. I’m sure Kat Jones has some great music in store for us in the future and her work so far is an indication that this talented woman deserves every listening ear she can get. [Trae Cadenhead, The Phantom Tollbooth, 8/8/2004]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/la-rosa-la-calavera/263823275)
CD tracklist:
01. The Night Is A Veil
02. Those Expensive Eyes
03. Sleeping Winter Fool
04. Letters
05. The Great Scottish Hurricane
06. One More Second Chance
07. When Answers Don’t Come
08. Elliot
09. The Case
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://katjones.bandcamp.com/album/la-rosa-la-calavera-remaster
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