Mississippi Jones incorporates global themes of resistance and resilience with an intimate insight into her own personal battles against authority. Her music,a blues soul hybrid with pop sensibilities, captures moments of authentic personal struggle as they blossom into validation, independence, and self trust.
While spending an inordinate amount of her youth in a cave she was secluded from the very culture which created and fostered her love of music and community. Artists like KRS1, Nina Simone, James Carr, and Sublime managed to get through the rock walls and set her free musically and mentally. Mississippi Jones now seeks to reproduce and reciprocate the love and passion transmitted in the hallmarks of these artists on a mass scale through her own listeners.
A few days ago Mississippi Jones dropped her single, “Change”, which was produced at TresGatos Studios and released on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play among others. While the single doesn’t scream ‘massive hit’ or completely bowl you over instantly on the first listen, it will grow on you strongly, as does the video published on YouTube.
The main talent Jones has in her favor, is of course, her voice. The rich, untamed and warm timbre in her vocal is like a mix between Nina Simone and Annie Lennox, while the soul in Jones’ voice is reminiscent of Joss Stone in places.
“Change” flows in a slow hypnotic and trance-like atmosphere, which is penetrated by Mississippi Jones’ almost soul-therapeutic-like vocal exchanges, against a backdrop of screeching guitar notes, and snapping drums. The song seems to reaffirm what is going on inside of Jones’ head as it delves into your own instinctual subconscious.
In a growing world of homogeneous music- made up of corporate pop stars with little talent and lots of hype, it’s refreshing to see that Mississippi Jones is able to do her own thing with the passion fueled single and supporting video.
As with most indie releases, “Change” will probably be underrated and unaccepted by mainstream pop radio. What should remain clear in our heads though is that Mississippi Jones is not the next pop princess and neither is she attempting to be. This woman is a creative and eclectic artist. Obviously you’ll be quickly engaged by her great voice, which is hard for anybody to resist, but to truly appreciate her music, you’ll have to dig a little deeper than radio pop!
Listening to her other compositions on YouTube, I get the impression that Mississippi Jones will continue to stay away from any possible concerns about hit potential and radio airplay and just freely expressive herself musically. This may of course, ultimately restrict her fan-reach and commercial success, but conserve Jones’ music as an integral platform to express her musical and cultural idiosyncrasies; something which should be of much more interest to discerning music listeners.
Mississippi Jones
OFFICIAL LINKS:
