Shawn Jones concerts

About Shawn Jones

Shawn Jones is a San Bernardino, California–born guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter working across blues, roots rock, Americana, and country-inflected rock. His musical through-line begins with voice: he sang in choir before guitar became central, then joined a school jazz band and began earning money from music at 15. The useful live-hook here is endurance: Jones has kept a working road band in circulation for decades, with a show built around his guitar and lead vocal.

A Solo Start in Southern California

Jones’s formative project was solo from the outset, shaped in San Bernardino by singing harmony with his father, Danny Jones, and by a left-handed guitar his father gave him in 1973. He describes his first paid engagement as two Italian restaurants in San Bernardino at age 15; school jazz-band work also led to assemblies and visits to other schools. His first available full-length, Natural Soul, arrived in 1998 as a 13-song, 56-minute release credited ℗ Shawn Jones. That early record frames him as a guitarist-songwriter fronting his own material, a template that continues through the current trio.

Records That Mark the Route

Natural Soul (1998, Shawn Jones) is the opening album in the available catalog, tagged rock by Apple Music and carrying a self-issued copyright. Its 13-song length establishes the full-band album format before Jones’s later roots and blues emphasis. All In Good Time (2005, High Drive Records) shifts the platform to blues and contains 11 songs. Jones dedicated it to his father; “My Best Friend” became a requested acoustic-show song, and a recovered cassette recording of his father appears as a hidden track. Those details make the record a personal landmark as well as a genre marker.

Live at Mozambique (2008; label uncredited in the opened listing) documents the concert side of his catalog. Struggle Makes You Stronger (2013, Shawn Jones) followed as a 12-song, 47-minute rock record bearing his own copyright, maintaining the independent release model. Pain Passed Down (2018; label uncredited in the interview record) concentrated on blues material: Jones said he wrote nine of its ten songs, with a Robert Johnson remake closing the album, and recorded live rhythm tracks across three Hollywood sessions. In My Blood (2024, High Drive Records) brought producer and engineer Niko Bolas, mastering engineer Richard Dodd, drummer Herman Matthews, bassist Sam Bolle, percussionist Ramon Yslas, Josie Aiello, Philip Parlapiano, and the Memphis Horns into the fold.

Players, Producers, and Road Connections

Jones’s credits connect his solo catalog to country, blues, and studio worlds. Waylon Jennings managed Jones for a period, took him on tour, and used him on Jennings’s 1996 album Right for the Time; Jones recalls recording the project at Woodland Studios in Nashville. He also played for Deana Carter for nine years and co-wrote “69 Coupe De Ville” with fellow Carter player Ed Berghoff. A later opening relationship with Robert Cray extended to a 16-date UK theater run, while In My Blood assembled Bolas and the returning Matthews and Bolle around Jones’s songs.

What the Chicago Shows Put on the Table

The documented live format is flexible between acoustic solo work and a band, though the Chicago booking is firmly a trio: Jones on guitar and vocals, Herman Matthews on drums, and Sam Bolle on bass and vocals. Andy’s Jazz Club lists two 75-minute sets, 6:00–7:15 p.m. and 8:15–9:30 p.m., for each night; Jones’s own event page calls the August 22 appearance the trio’s Andy’s debut. The August 21–22 run therefore supplies four sets across two evenings, with $20 advance admission listed for the August 22 late set. Jones described his performance goal to Rock and Blues Muse as staying present in the room and finding audience interplay, a practical description of the close-range club setting.

Current Release, Current Dates

The latest release visible in the opened catalog is “Last Teardrop,” a one-song High Drive Records single dated May 16, 2025. Jones’s official biography describes an annual schedule of over 200 dates across the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union. His next CrowdMate dates are four Chicago sets at Andy’s Jazz Club: August 21, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., followed by August 22 at 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. The August 22 late set features the Matthews-Bolle trio.

Start Here

“My Best Friend,” for the father-centered writing and acoustic-show history; “69 Coupe De Ville,” for the co-writing link to his Deana Carter years; and “Last Teardrop,” for the most recent High Drive release.

Sources

1. Shawn Jones - Bio — Shawn Jones / High Drive Records
2. Natural Soul - Album by Shawn Jones — Apple Music
3. Interview: Shawn Jones, Blues Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter — Rock and Blues Muse
4. All In Good Time - Album by Shawn Jones — Apple Music
5. 2nd Set With Shawn Jones — Andy's Jazz Club
6. Shawn Jones Trio (2nd Set) at Andy's Jazz Club - August 22, 2026 — Shawn Jones / High Drive Records