Cover Art Courtesy of Big Machine/John Varvatos Records
SEATTLE (December 16, 2020) — Ayron Jones understands how tough life can be, yet he also realized music is the one lifeline that can – and will — deliver in the worst moments. Long a favorite of the Seattle rock/alt scene, the 2020 John Varvatos/Big Machine signing has watched “Take Me Away” rise into the top 5 on this week’s active rock chart and land distinguished placement in Best of 2020 lists from Spotify, Amazon Music and Loudwire.
The angst driven rocker pits being abandoned by a drug addicted mother against the overwhelming crush of an indifferent world; the chorus serves as both an entreaty and a rallying cry for all who share or struggle with those top heavy feelings. He explained to RADIO.com’s Ryan Castle, “It’s taking all that energy and turning it into something positive that I hope will bring people up and not let them stay in that place they’re in.”
The Seattle Times recognized greatness, declaring, “the soaring rock anthem encapsulating Jones’ determination and musical refuge is a fitting intro to both his life story and his amalgam of blues-heavy hard rock and soul, with occasional chamber rock strings and hip-hop elements.”
Recorded at Seattle’s famed London Bridge Studio, Jones stands at the intersection of Jimi Hendrix, Jon Butcher Axis and Soundgarden. Working with producer Eric Lilavois, they enlisted bassist Bob Lovelace, Andrew Joslyn for strings, drummer Barrett Martin of the Screaming Trees and local singer Scarlett Park for a track that writhes and rises on its own potent alchemy.
Jones quietly packs deep rock bona fides. Beyond his own solo career, Jones was tapped for the hard rock supergroup the Levee Walkers with Guns’N’Roses’ Duff McKagan, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and the Screaming Trees’ Barrett Martin. Not only did Martin go on to produce the genre-smearing Black guitarist’s 2017 Audio Plant Job, Sir Mix-A-Lot helmed his 2013 debut.
That ability to connect to others drives his music. Indeed, “Take Me Away” inspired American Songwriter to proclaim, “built on those same memories and abandonment that Jones was forced to confront at such a young age… instead of writing a downtrodden, sob-story, Jones wanted to give kids that are suffering his same childhood fate, an anthem to escape in.”
Heavy rock bible Loudwire concurs. In posting the “Take Me Away” music video, Lauryn Shaffner wrote of the song’s greatest truth, “our beginnings don’t have to define where we go.” Though one’s beginnings can offer an incredible foundation.
Praising Jones’ song for being “deeply rooted in Seattle’s musical history,” Spokane’s Spokesman-Review went deep, offering, “A hard-rock palette opens the song with punctual drums and a deep, growling guitar line. But the song builds in its complexity and the diversity of its influences, with moments pulling from hip-hop and blues, grunge and hard rock… Jones is Seattle’s musical history taking on a new and contemporary form.”
Refusing to be bound by genres or influences, just as he rejected the seeming fate of a child whose mother was lost to drug addiction, Jones has made the transition to a major label, a Billboard Top 10 Rock track and recognition as a man born of the diverse, but always hard rocking Pacific Northwest with the grace of a traveler committed to his journey.
