With recognition (by critics, peers and fans alike) snowballing daily regarding Diana Jones' position as one of the most distinctive, soulful and nuanced singer/songwriters in the country/folk idiom, Ryko Distribution has agreed with NewSong Recordings to make Diana's luminous 2006 independent release My Remembrance of You readily available to chain and independent buyers across the U.S., while Proper Distribution delivers the record to new audiences in the UK and Ireland.

Despite limited initial promotions and spotty retail availability, My Remembrance of You has found love wherever it has landed. The album was cited on numerous 'Best of 2006' lists (including Nashville Scene) and was named the Chicago Tribune 's #1 Country Disc 2006, even as tracks like "Pretty Girl" and "Pony" were championed by savvy folk, country and Americana radio deejays on both sides of the Atlantic.

Clearly poised for a breakout, Jones also won the prestigious 2006 Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest, a competition whose past contestants include Steve Earle, John Gorka, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett and many, many other stellar tunesmiths.

Possessed of a rich, resonant, bell-toned voice redolent of hill-country essence, Diana Jones spins out humble, unfiltered tales with a crisp, no-nonsense economy that manages to encompass the timeless simplicity of evergreens assembled by the Carter Family, the rustic, in-the-tradition works of Iris DeMent and Gillian Welch, and a breathtakingly graceful way with the language that has drawn comparisons to the likes of Emily Dickinson, Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers.

As a testament to her skills and empathic writing qualities, Jones was honored to be invited to write a song for the first memorial service recognizing the 80-year anniversary of the tragic coal mine explosion on April 30, 1927 in Everettville, West Virginia that left 111 dead.

Incorporating the poignant last messages written by victim Henry Russell to his wife as he awaited his death by suffocation deep in the mine... "Still alive, but the air is getting' bad...oh how I love you Mary", Jones wrote the astonishingly tender and dignified "Henry Russell's Last Words," which was performed in Everettville on April 30th this year for a crowd that included Russell's 86-year-old daughter and her family.

Jones was put up for adoption as an infant and raised in New York, but the almost magnetic attraction of the music of Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Emmylou and Dolly underscored an overwhelming sense of her otherness, and - at the age of 15 - she left her adoptive family in search of her roots. Some years later, when she was reunited with her birth family in the hills of Eastern Tennessee, she finally came to comprehend the source of those mysterious, innate impulses.

Diana polished her songwriting and performance skills in the highly-competitive environs of Austin, Texas; she released her well-received indie debut "Imagine Me" in 1997, followed by the equally fine, but appropriately-titled "The One That Got Away."

When her beloved grandfather, Robert Lee Maranville (a musician who had performed with Chet Atkins as a young man) passed away, she retreated to the northeast to grieve, heal and, in the process, woodshed in a deeper, darker place that resulted in her breaking into a heightened level of songwriting artistry. Those songs would form the bulk of My Remembrance of You (which is dedicated to Maranville).

Produced by Jones and Mark Thayer, the disc is a showcase of lean, organic arrangements that support Diana's voice and guitar with a streamlined group that includes wizard of all-things-stringed Duke Levine, percussionist Lorne Entress, bassist Bob Dick, fiddler Jay Ungar and cameos by Jane Karras (guitar) and the great Ferron (harmony vocals). 

With this remarkable album getting a much-deserved second push, Jones' incandescent talent continues to gather passionate proponents as high-profile venues queue up to bring her on board.

The musicians' association Folk Alliance has accorded her two 2007 nominations - "Pony" for Song of the Year and Diana herself for Emerging Artist of the Year. And, apart from her busy solo career, she appeared with BYRDJONES (her side-project/collaboration with Jonathan Byrd), at this year's Kerrville Folk Festival to share material from their new disc, Radio Soul.

The summer of '07 brings performances at noted folk festivals in Cambridge (UK), Galway (Ireland), Sioux River, Newport and Philadelphia, followed by a stop at the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Festival in Bristol, TN and a brief BYRDJONES tour of Switzerland in late September.

For all of the kudos and recognition, though, the fact that Diana has been tabbed as the opening act for the legendary Richard Thompson's 15-day UK tour in October may best underscore the elevated status she has achieved.

Diana Jones is a major artist whose star is undeniably, irrevocably on the rise. If you're one of the many who missed out on My Remembrance of You's first, flickering appearance, DO NOT let it slip past you again.

Diana Jones August Tour Dates

Aug 3 - Old Courthouse Museum, Sioux Falls, SD

Aug 3 - Sioux River Folk Festival, Canton, SD

Aug 4 - Sioux River Folk Festival, Canton, SD

Aug 5 - Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI

Aug 7 - Johnny D's, Somerville, MA

Aug 11 - MAD SQ Studio Summer Concert Series, Madison Square Park, New York City

Aug 12 - Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction, New York City

Aug 17 - Philadelphia Folk Festival, Schwenksville, PA

Aug 18 - Philadelphia Folk Festival, Schwenksville, PA

Aug 19 - Roots of American Music Festival, Lincoln Center South Plaza, New York, NY

Aug 31 - Music on the Square, Jonesborough, TN

The Mugwumps are best known as the band immortalized in autobiographical song by the Mamas & the Papas. Many know of them, but few have heard their one 1967 album for Warner Bros. Records. Until now, that is, as Collectors' Choice Music prepares its June 5 reissue of The Mugwumps' self-titled album.

"This was the first folk-rock group ever," Cass Elliot boasted to Johnny Carson about The Mugwumps. In a sense it's true. Born of the late Greenwich Village folk scene just as many of its proponents prepared to colonize Laurel Canyon, the band consisted of Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty (later of the Mamas & the Papas), Zalman Yanovsky (future guitarist for the Lovin' Spoonful) and Jim Hendricks. A small amount of cross-pollination occurred in the group's formation: Cass and her erstwhile husband Jim had been in Cass Elliot & the Big Three, a progressive folk outfit. Canadians Denny and Zal hailed from The Haliax Three, a more traditional folk trio. In early '64, Zal and Denny launched a rock alter ego called The Noise. Also in '64, Cass introduced Zal to John Sebastian by claiming Ringo Starr was with her. A historic connection was made as Zal and John went off to form the Lovin' Spoonful, while Cass and Denny joined John & Michelle Phillips to form the Mamas & the Papas, who pioneered rock's "California Dreamin'" era.

The Mugwumps' name was given to them by producer Erik Jacobsen, who heard them at the skid row flophouse known as the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village, where the members made their home. A mugwump is a fence-sitter who can't make up his mind – mug on one side, wump on the other side.

The Washington Post noted the group was "attempting a new sound."  Another review described Cass as a "large young gal dressed in a leopard-skin muu muu."  The description continued of the guys: "One wore his hair combed forward over his brow à la a Beatle. Another looked like you or me except for sideburns which grew at least half way to his chin.  Another looked like Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary fame."  As they played, the critic noted, "the men plucked glistening electric guitars with great vehemence and the one with the Beatle mop moved his head back and forth like a Dupont Circle pigeon spying a crust of bread."

Cited in the reissue's liner notes by Richard Barton Campbell, Denny Doherty was quoted as saying: "Picture this group: Zalman Yanovksy, free lance Jew; me from Halifax, the weird Irishman playing bass; this 300 pound Cass; we've got Art Stokes, black kid on drums; Jim Hendricks on guitar, John Sebastian sometimes sitting on a stool playing harmonica, and we called ourselves The Mugwumps! We went electric a year before Dylan. Everybody went, 'What!? Get out of here!'"

Unfortunately, the Mugwumps era lasted only from July through November 1964, their one album recorded August 13 & 14, 1964, produced by Alan Lorber, who'd gone to see them at the behest of managers Roy Silver and Bob Covello.

In November 1964, they played their swan song performance at the Peppermint Lounge in New York.

Recalled Cass: "We were doing very sophisticated folksy stuff, but obviously 1964 wasn't the year for it. . . It was in a time warp. Just too much before its time."

Perhaps we can better understand the Mugwumps muse 43 years later, in 2007. At any rate, thanks to Collectors' Choice, we'll have the opportunity to try.