Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“Journeyman” seems like the most fitting tag for guitarist and singer Chris Jones, who even as a kid bounced back and forth between his mother in New York and his father in New Mexico. Since tackling music full-time in 1981 he’s done several stints in Chicago with the veteran bluegrass combo Special Consensus and spent some time in Nashville as a member of Dale Evans & Riverband, along with several other groups. His resume also includes work with the Chieftains, Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, and April Verch, all of whom have had an influence on his recent solo album, Too Far Down the Road. Produced by Pete Anderson and released on his Little Dog label last year, it’s a record full of highly personalized honky-tonk with strong folk and bluegrass accents. (It even features bluegrass heavies like Rhonda Vincent, Mike Auldridge, and Chris Hillman.)
