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Widely acclaimed US singer-songwriter Diana Jones has announced the re-issue of her critically lauded 2009 album Better Times Will Come – Reimagined & Remastered on April 7, to mark the 15th anniversary of its recording.
Diana enlisted studio engineer Steve Addabbo, fresh from his work on Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series, to help her cast a retrospective eye over the tracks. Together they reimagined the mixes and the running order and added a previously unreleased song ‘Call Me Daddy’, to reflect changes she has envisaged since the original release.
The new version of the title track “Better Times Will Come”, featuring harmony vocals by Diana’s friend the late Nanci Griffith and a newly found additional chorus, is out now. Its abiding message remains so timely, given the hardships of recent years and those still being felt today.
Hailed variously in the press as the “Emily Dickinson of song,” “The lost daughter of the Carter Family” as well as a "Hillbilly Feminist", Diana will embark on the Better Times Will Come – Reimag-ined & Remastered
Diana’s personal commentary on Better Times Will Come – Reimagined & Remastered:
After the release of my first record, My Remembrance of You, in 2006 I found myself on the road over 200 days a year. Luckily I was writing in between solo tours, opening a Richard Thompson tour, and working with artists like Nick Lowe and Seasick Steve. I recorded my first BBC4 television special and did BBC radio with luminaries Bob Harris and Ricky Ross. When I was ready to record Better Times Will Come Joan Baez was already slated to record “Henry Russell’s Last Words” on her record, Day After Tomorrow.
During the summer of 2008 I took three days off from touring and joined a stellar band of musicians and friends at Signature Sounds Studio in Promfret, CT to record Better Times Will Come with Mark Thayer who also co-produced and engineered My Remembrance of You. Of course I arrived with what my British friends would call “a stinking cold” tanked up on cold meds but by then even the newer songs were reflex after performing them night after night and recording felt like pressing play supported by a stellar line up of musicians including the instinctive and versatile Duke Levine on all manner of strings. We tracked most of the record in three days and then Nanci Griffith and Mary Gauthier’s harmony vocals and Ketch Secor’s snake handling solo on the song “Something Crossed Over” were recorded in Nashville.
During the pandemic more than one friend/fan suggested re-releasing Better Times Will Come and folks had been asking for vinyl for a long time. This winter I revisited the tracks with Grammy Award winning producer and studio engineer Steve Addabbo and together we reimagined the record choosing different mixes of some of the songs and remastered everything. A track I’d forgotten about, “Call Me Daddy,” was recorded in the original session but left off the record so Steve and I included it and arranged the songs in a slightly different order.
On the fifteenth anniversary of recording Better Times Will Come the songs have gained new meaning for me personally and in terms of the state of a post-Covid world. Bush II was president when I wrote the title track, and all these years later the sentiment of better times is sadly still even more relevant. The war in Iraq is now the war in Ukraine, the US is still recovering from a more disastrous presidency, Nanci Griffith has sadly left us too soon. The song “‘Evangelina” which The Guardian called me a ‘hillbilly feminist’ for writing has a companion ‘Me Too’ song in “Call Me Daddy.” “The Day I Die” now makes me think of the endless Covid losses we endured together while staying apart from each other during the long year or so.
The other part of the story is vinyl. I grew up on it. At fifteen I left home and lived with grown up hippies who had been to Woodstock and had an amazing vinyl collection. And they let me us their stereo. It’s where I was introduced to Odetta and Joan Baez, Janis Ian and Tom Paxton. Many of the artists I would meet and work with later on. So finally having a record out on vinyl means a lot to me. I hope you all enjoy it.
Diana Jones biography:
Adopted as an infant and raised in Long Island, NY, the fact that Diana Jones couldn’t get enough of her brother’s Johnny Cash records finally made sense when she found her birth family and musical roots in the Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee “Whenever I heard anyone country…. like Johnny Cash or Dolly Parton, I wanted more but I just didn’t know where to find it.” Diana’s maternal grandfather, who had formed his first teenage band with a young Chet Atkins, was happy to pass on the culture and music that he loved to his granddaughter. Gradually Jones discovered an uncanny affinity for the Appalachian music of her ancestors and began claiming it as her own combining traditional mountain and old-time sounds with a literate, character-driven brand of storytelling that has become both her life’s work and the essence of her live show.
Diana’s breakout album ‘My Remembrance Of You’ (Proper Records) in 2006 garnered rave reviews internationally and set her on a path which would see her release five further critically acclaimed albums: Better Times Will Come (2009), High Atmosphere (2011), Museum Of Appalachia Recordings (2013), Live In Concert (2016) and Song To A Refugee (2020). She has toured the globe, including performances at prestigious events such as Cambridge Folk Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Levon Helm’s Ramble in Woodstock, NY, and Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and shared stages with the likes of Richard Thompson, Janis Ian and Mary Gauthier. She has also appeared on world-renowned TV and radio shows Later With Jools Holland, BBC4 Folk America, BBC4's Songwriters Circle and BBC Radio 2 Country with Bob Harris. Diana’s progressive, yet historically rich, songs have been recorded by artists including Joan Baez and Gretchen Peters and have won her awards from Kerrville Folk Festival, New Song Festival and nominations from International Folk Alliance.