Album Notes

Late in his life, a better man than I reduced his inspiration to three basic elements.
Love. God. Murder.
It was just that simple.
The drugs you take…The bones you break…The money you make…The blood you spill...The love you kill… it all comes down to these basic things. What you do with them is up to you, there's a light at the end of the tunnel or there's the dark at the bottom of the hole. Make what you will.

When I finished my last album, “August,” people asked me all sorts of questions. "What did you mean by this? What were you saying there? Who’s that song about? Etc., etc., etc.," I would ramble on about some such crap for a minute or two and every answer would end with the words “you know” or “I dunno.” Sometimes I would just shrug.

People make things way more complicated than they ought to be. I am guilty of that. Case in point, this is supposed to be a big sales pitch for my new album and I haven’t even mentioned the name of it, yet.

This album is called “The Jonestown Revival*.” When I previewed it for a few folks, they seemed to think it was “a concept album from beginning to end.” I don’t know about that. I suppose it could’ve been. Maybe. I don’t know if I meant for it to be. Some things just go together real nice and when you’re done, you don’t even remember what you were thinking at the time. You can make a story out of it, and you probably wouldn't be wrong if you did it.

I will say this. It’s a little heavy. It’s a little dense. It’s a bit moody. It’s about love and hate and booze and blow ups and guns and God and vengeance and all that good stuff. It's all the same stuff that everybody writes about, it doesn’t matter if your Johnny Cash, John Lennon or John the Baptist. It doesn’t matter if it’s the bible, the bard or Bukowski.
Love. God. Murder.
Pick your poison.
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel... There’s the dark at the bottom of the hole...
Make what you will.


I dunno.
Anyway, the album is called “The Jonestown Revival.”
I hope you like it.
That’s all I have to say about that.
-mat jones



*Produced by Brian Irwin.