For anybody who doesn’t know of Derek Jones and the story of his music carrier, Jones actually started back in 2003 after his service in the United States Army.
After that he started filling bars and hanky tonks all over the Midwest and Midsouth. Jones then moved to Nashville to work on his song writing skills. This move led to him writing songs for the popular television series “Tailgate Adventures” and also wrote the theme song for “Fishers ATV World.” But don’t let that fool you, Jones is much more than a jingle writer.
He has shared the stage with artist such as David Allan Coe, Shooter Jennings, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tyler Farr, Alabama, Charlie Daniels, Blackberry Smoke, Saving Abel & Jamey Johnson, and more.
Performing with Billy Ray Cyrus proved to do Derek Jones some good in his carrier. Jones has actually performed with Cyrus twice. Once in 2015 at the Grand Ole Opry and at the 40th anniversary of the Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam at Bridgestone Arena to perform “Some Gave All.” Fallowing their performance Jones recorded Don Williams classic “Tulsa Time” with Billy Ray and Joe Perry from Aerosmith. The track was released on Cyrus’ latest album “Thin Line” in 2016.
Now with some impressive experience, Derek Jones released his third studio album “Pray” this year. With his blended sound of country-rock and blues-rock, Jones belts out passionate tracks about his blue coaler life style and old country values. With themes about living a country lifestyle, praying in schools, tragedies of coming home after war, love for our free country, and one heartbreak track. The featured track on the album is “Cold as a Stone.” A tribute to war veterans coming home and life not being the same as it once was. My personal favorite is “What happened.” A heartbreak song that takes the listener through the relationship from first meeting to the pain of ending just because of falling out of love. It has more of an old country feel than the other tracks on the album, and to me felt the most relatable.