Play this video for a sampling of the music, then read on for the backstory of the making of Tj. Jones’ 2018 debut CD project, Everyday, which I had the pleasure of co-producing.
You can buy Tj’s CD on his website: ltj2-productions.com
I guess I’ve known Tj. Jones for over 40 years, since my early days in Bloomington, Indiana. He was one of the other “hired guns” in town, a small group of fleet-fingered players who somehow found themselves playing in a good share of the bands, doing a good share of the recording projects, and otherwise showing up for the gig (whatever it was), usually unrehearsed, but able to get with the music and sound like they knew what the hell they were doing.
In March of 2017, out of the blue I got a call from Tj., enquiring about doing a CD project. He’d added some fine electric guitar in 2011 to the Ruthie Allen Lincoln project, Fascination, produced by Ruthie, our dear departed friend, Ron Keith, and myself, and he was thinking I might be a good fit for his project. We took a meeting, discussed what he had in mind, came to terms, and within a few days had mics humming up in StringDancer Studios, for what would be 15-months of weekly sessions, creating Tj’s debut solo album of original music, Everyday.
The first thing you may notice as you peruse the credits: Tj. isn’t just a songwriting guitar player, he’s a multi-instrumentalist, playing bass, drums, percussion, synthesizer and keyboard, and what he’s dubbed a “Git-Organ”, using an effect pedal to make his guitar emulate the sound of a Hammond B-3. Sound effects aside, to pull this off a guitar player has to think like a keyboardist… no small feat.
A couple of the tunes on Everyday were tracked with Tj. playing every instrument and singing every vocal line, following in the footsteps of two of his musical influences, Stevie Wonder and Prince. His bass playing is funky, in-the-pocket and consistent… everything you’d want from a good bass player. His drumming doesn’t indulge in flashiness, but is tight and dead on the beat. The percussion session we did for the tune Shuck & Jive (The Politician) was particularly fun — Tj. schlepped in a very unusual collection of African hand percussion, and he had a complete arrangement in his head as to how the various rhythms and sounds would combine to create the final percussion mix.
But Tj. also brought in some heavy hitters when the tune called for it, including Slats Klug on organ, Lenny Marsh on drums, Opal Fly on sax, Brian Gill on electric piano, and the Helber Sisters (Vicki Helber, Janet Helber and Alice Wilmoth) on background vocals. I got to play guitar on a couple of tunes, and did some drum and percussion programming (more on that below).
The very first tune we tracked, surprisingly, had no guitars at all. In fact, other than a sultry baritone sax part from the fabulous Opal Fly, Marry Me was entirely a-cappella, featuring Tj. singing lead and four-part harmonies. Primarily an instrumentalist, Tj. said he knew the tune would be a challenge, and wanted to tackle it first for that reason. He had originally intended to sing the bass vocal, as well, but since my voice had lowered considerably over the years from the baritone of my youth into more of a quasi-bass, I offered to take a stab it. I was rattling my lower register to the max, but managed to hit the notes.
Besides programming drum/percussion tracks on a few tunes for my man to flesh out instrumentally, I had the opportunity to add nylon-string guitar to two tracks, Linda’s Blues and Latin Lover. The former lays some distinctly jazzy embellishments onto what would otherwise be a standard slow 12-bar blues progression, with alternating ascending and descending chord substitutions occurring on nearly every beat — an interesting treatment, musically speaking. He could have taken the easy blues approach, but chose to devise a new twist on an old form. That’s just how his mind works.
On Latin Lover (the album’s only full-on instrumental), I had a lot of fun layering two flamenco-style rhythm guitar parts to tag along with Tj’s bass and electric rhythm guitar, then adding an extended gut-string solo in the middle of the tune. I also had full rein of the drum and percussion programming on the tune, so I was delightfully busy on that track for several weeks.
All in all, I had a boatload of fun on this, and I want to thank Tj. for picking me to co-produce, play, and handle all the engineering on his project.
The Making Of A Friendship
To be honest, TJ. and I were at best moderately good acquaintances when the project began. Our paths had crossed a lot in the old days, we’d run into each other at community events, the local guitar shop and watering holes, but we had never hung out much… he was busy doing his thing and I was busy doing mine. Then we heard nothing from each other for over two decades while I was gone from the Bloomington area. So while we weren’t starting from scratch, our relationship had not yet developed into what you might call a “friendship”. Well, nothing like birthing a CD together over the course of 15 months to make a couple of old guitar players good buddies.
Here’s the thing about guitar players… typically, we love to talk. Mostly about guitars, of course, but also about life, politics, and the occasional foray into what makes us so weird. The Tj. Jones sessions were no different. In between the setting up, the tracking, the long hours of listening, scrutinizing, deletions and high-fives, Tj. and I discussed a lot of topics, including politics, which can be a touchy subject these days. Being products of the 60s and 70s, we have a lot in common politically, but also a few areas where our outlooks diverge.
What distinguished our conversations (not only those of a political nature, but also musical) was a mutual civility — a willingness to listen, to argue amicably, to search for common ground and, if none could be found, to simply accept that we disagreed — no harm, no foul, let’s get back to the work at hand, shall we? It’s all just opinions, and we all know the old saying about opinions. While Tj. and I had great respect for one another as musicians from the get-go, it was the honest, no-nonsense talks we had that cemented the friendship. Real friends aren’t afraid to speak their truths to each other, confident that the relationship can handle minor challenges, even an occasional head-butt, without disintegrating. This was true for us whether we were working on the music, or chilling afterwards, shooting the bull.
This open and frank interaction is a big reason we worked so well together on this project. Other than a few sessions where we brought in additional players, it was mostly just two old farts sipping cabernet into the wee hours and cranking out the jams. Musically, Tj. knew exactly (and I mean precisely) what he wanted. If I suggested an idea on how we could do this or that in the creative process, he looked at it through the prism of his own experience, knowledge, sensibilities, and would immediately respond, yay or nay. It was all about ‘going with the gut’, which can definitely be a good thing in the creative process. Tj. knows music, knows the studio, knows if an idea might lead to something useful, or be a waste of time. As do I. So there was an immediate flow to our work that made it… well, not effortless, that’s too strong a word… efficient, instinctive and professional.
At one point Tj. joked, “You and me, man… we’re the Steely Dan of Brown County.” While I think he might have exaggerated our combined skill-set a tad, I like the analogy. Of course, it was late in the evening, we were listening to a killer track we had just captured, and we were well into the second bottle by then.
I’m really proud of the work we did on Everyday. And after the music was in the can, mixed, mastered and delivered to the duplicators, work continued as we turned our attention to building his website, where I got to put my years as a web designer to work in service to his music. The entire project was a joy from start to finish. Thanks again, brother… let’s do it again sometime. 🍷😎👍🏼
Check out Tj. Jones at ltj2-productions.com
Addendum: Tj. Jones responds on Facebook to this article
Hello folks. If you are at all interested in a ‘behind the scenes’ look at my album project, ‘Everyday’, you should read this heart-felt essay of the process by my co-producer, engineer, sideman (though that word doesn’t do justice to Jeff’s contributions as a musician), and friend Jeff Foster. Everything was just as Jeff describes it, as it was not only a project being developed, but a real friendship developing as well.
There is one thing that I think Jeff sorts of hints at, but doesn’t really go into detail about, and that’s how complimentary our skill sets were on this project. We just seemed to really click with our ideas about the music, it’s general direction, and the overall approach. Jeff came up with some wonderful music ideas, and helped me to realize some of the ideas I had. But as he notes in his essay, we became close enough as friends where we could tell each other, more or less, ‘Hey dude, that idea sucks!’, and move on with no hurt feelings, and get the song done right. Jeff really helped me to keep my focus on what was important, and helped me to slog through what could have been a tortuous process if the wrong people were trying to work together on this.
I went with my gut in choosing Jeff to do this project with me, and I can say without any reservation, my gut was way more on target than even I would have believed. Thanks so much Jeff Foster for your major contributions to this project, and helping me to realize a dream I’ve been carrying around for years. You The Man!
~~~ Tj. Jones – July 29, 2018
