Album Review: Diana Jones - High Atmosphere (Proper)

The third album release from Diana Jones, which follows MY REMEMBRANCE OF YOU (2006) and BETTER TIMES WILL COME (2009), continues to draw upon the music and sounds of a bygone era, with a dozen personal songs from one of Nashville's leading songwriters. Dedicated to Diana's late cousin Harold Lesher, HIGH ATMOSPHERE delivers a dozen songs, mostly written 'on the go' about people, places and situations that appear to reflect the singer's recent experiences. The album's title for instance derives from several angles. Borrowed from the title of an early 1970s Rounder record, the title reflects upon the time spent writing songs on planes whilst on tour but also refers to Diana's optimistic story of surviving the Cumberland River floods due to having a 'shotgun shack' home up on a hill in Nashville. High Atmosphere was therefore an almost obvious choice for the album title.

The songs at first come over as possibly dirge-like but have a certain optimism in their presentation. There's the over-protective big sister talking on Sister, which indicates the inherent scepticism and suspicion a good big sister would have when it comes to dealing with a younger sibling's romantic liaisons. Then there's Funeral Singer, a song that developed from Diana's frequent requests to sing at the wakes of dearly departed family members. Even the one non-original song on the album, the traditional Motherless Children, deals with the hardships that orphans live through; it's all pretty personal stuff. Then, once you feel the songs couldn't get any more personal, along comes the stunning Drug For This, which is performed by a singer who instinctively knows the empathy such a song is bound to attract; we've all been there.

Co-produced with Old Crow Medicine Show frontman Ketch Secor, HIGH ATMOSPHERE features a team of sympathetic musicians, with Secor on fiddle, guitar and banjo, Mike Bub on bass, Beau Stapleton on mandolin, bajo quinto and guitar, Aaron Embry on keyboards, Duke Levine on guitar. David Mayfield on guitar, Tommy G on drums and Michael Samis on cello. Diana is also joined by Jim Lauderdale who shares vocals on the songs Poverty, Funeral Singer and Motherless Children.