Marti Jones is an American singer and visual artist known for her albums and her paintings. She sings, records, and performs as "Marti Jones" and exhibits visual art as "Marti Jones Dixon."
Early life
Marti Jones grew up in Uniontown, Ohio, United States near Akron, Ohio. She performed with her sisters in a folk music group and graduated from Kent State University in 1979 with a degree in studio art. While in school, she performed in solo, duo, and trio contexts.
Career
Color Me Gone
Producer and songwriter Liam Sternberg gave Jones her first studio experience singing demos, and suggested she join Akron band Color Me Gone who needed a lead singer. The band recorded one EP for A&M Records in 1983.
A&M Recordings
Her first solo album, 1985's Unsophisticated Time, was produced by Don Dixon. Marti covered songs by The dB's, The Bongos, Elvis Costello, and Dixon. The album featured Anne Richmond Boston and Mitch Easter. Jones and Dixon married in 1988, and Dixon produced and wrote songs for all of her subsequent albums. She recorded two more albums for A&M Records -- Match Game and Used Guitars -- featuring a wide range of supporting musicians. These albums featured original material, and covers of songs by Janis Ian, Elvis Costello, John Hiatt, Jackie DeShannon, Richard Barone, and Graham Parker. Jones' sound encompassed jangle pop, ballads, and southern-style soul. Her voice and singing style reminded some observers of Dusty Springfield, who mined a similarly eclectic field of pop music; others compared her voice to that of Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, or Annie Lennox.
Any Kind of Lie
In 1990, Jones moved to RCA Records to record Any Kind Of Lie. She relied more on original material and adapted an adult-contemporary sound. She was dropped by RCA after one album.
Sugar Hill Recordings
After losing her label, Jones, 35, decided to settle down and have a child. In 1996, Sugar Hill Records released a pair of Jones albums only a few months apart. Live at Spirit Square was an August 29, 1990 live recording at the Spirit Square Center for the Arts, documenting the Any Kind of Lie tour. My Long-Haired Life was a return to her previous method of blending original songs and covers. Having cut her characteristically long hair when she became a mother, the album title alludes to her life of singing back when her hair was long. The album's cover shows a self-painted portrait of Jones sitting in a barber's chair, her golden locks strewn on the floor.
Dixon Archival Remnants Recordings
2002's My Tidy Doily Dream was a slower tempo album, featuring songwriting collaborations with Richard Barone and Kelley Ryan of astroPuppees. After that, Jones curtailed her singing career for a time, and focused on painting. In 2003, Jones recorded the song "Room With a View" for a tribute to Let's Active's Every Word. In 2006, she toured with singer/songwriter Amy Rigby as The Cynical Girls. In 2008, Jones and Dixon released the download-only album Lucky Stars: New Lullabies for Old Souls A departure from Jones' and Dixon's previous sound, this recording began as a request from a friend who was putting together an album of lullabies to sell in hospitals to new parents. The album featured six vocal songs and five instrumentals. In fall of 2009, Jones and Dixon toured, performing a series of live acoustic performances. In 2010, Jones and Dixon recorded Living Stereo, a proper duet album. In 2014, Jones released You're Not the Bossa Me, which incorporates bossa nova rhythms and sensibilities into her own musical themes. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Marti Jones among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
