Dillon Jones | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: All right, that is called a celebrity club, and that is Dylan Jones.

0:04 Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.

0:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm excited to be.

0:07 Speaker 2: Here, absolutely absolutely.

0:09 Speaker 1: Now are you I was talking about you a little bit before we played town like Mine? Are you currently Do you currently live in Utah? Still I do?

0:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm from a small town called Leeds. I was actually born and raised there and about a year and a half ago was able to purchase property and come back.

0:27 Speaker 2: So oh outstanding. Now you grew up you grew up on a ranch, correct.

0:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, So the family we raised quarter horses, mostly for rodeo and ranch work, and it started years ago. My dad has been in the business throughout thirty years. They had a piece of property in Colorado where they would guide elk hunts, and in order to do that successfully, they needed some good horses to pack and to ride and go through the country. So they started buying good horses and then moved the operation down here after they sold to Colorado, and we've been doing it ever since.

1:02 Speaker 1: Now I'm curious about you know, I don't know a lot about this, but I've always assumed that it's very, very hard work and that it's not you know, I'm kind of showing my age when I say this, but you know, I grew up watching the shows like Dallas where they make it look like, you know, very glamorous on the ranch. But I assume it's it's incredibly hard work and it probably takes an implacable work ethic.

1:25 Speaker 2: But I mean, tell me if I'm wrong.

1:28 Speaker 3: No, you're you're right on the money. It kind of depends on what you dedicate yourself to. But we're, you know, a working farm and ranch. So we grow our own hay and put that up for the winter. We have cows, we have sheep and chickens and everything else in between. And then the horses side of things, we you know, will raise the colts and tell they're you know, about a year old, and then most of them will sell and go into rodeo homes, and the rest of them we keep and start training ourselves and get riding and work on the shows later.

1:59 Speaker 3: So it's a lot of work, and it's a family effort. Right now, I've got five siblings and my parents that all live close by, and we all pitch in and make the ranch work.

2:10 Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, what time is it there?

2:12 Speaker 1: By the way, I assume it's because you must be used to getting up pretty early. I was commenting to Jenny earlier that you know you're you're at least two hours behind us.

2:21 Speaker 3: I think, right, yeah, we're about seven thirty right now, but I've been up for about an.

2:26 Speaker 1: Hour, so yeah, that's no problem for you, certainly. So do you think, well, why did you start playing music? Did I read correctly that you started learning to be a musician at six years old?

2:39 Speaker 2: Is that correct?

2:41 Speaker 3: Yeah? So my family kind of had like a bluegrass band growing up, and I did percussion in ukulele when I was that young. And my sister's a phenomenal fiddle player. Actually, oh, I mean she had scholarships to universities and was first chair from her freshman year, so really really phenomenal. And I was kind of just a backup guitar player for her for a lot of years. And then she eventually got married and moved out of the house, and so I was sitting there with a guitar winder and what to do with it, and decided to learn how to sing.

3:13 Speaker 1: So so that.

3:15 Speaker 2: Was the beginning of that. Now does she still.

3:16 Speaker 1: Play She does.

3:19 Speaker 3: She actually usually plays in the band with us. She's had a baby recently, so she's kind of on maternity league, but gotcha. Yeah, she's just phenomenal.

3:28 Speaker 1: Bluegrass is impressive because I so I had never so many many years ago, I had I worked for a concert promoter who had booked Ricky Skaggs to play a show in Conquered, New Hampshire. Yeah, this was and I don't know, I mean, he's is he.

3:45 Speaker 2: Still around Ricky Skaggs?

3:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, he is, okay, because this would have been this would have been quite some time ago. Again showing my age a little bit, but at least, you know, more than a couple of decades.

3:55 Speaker 2: But but he he had booked.

3:57 Speaker 1: This promoter that I worked for, had booked Ricky Skaggs play this theater show in conquer New Hampshire. And I'd never really listened to you know, I'd always been aware of bluegrass, and of course I respect all genres of music, but i'd never really I'd never seen a bluegrass band live or anything. And I just remember being there at the show watching because I know, you know, he's had some mainstream success and whatnot, but he's also you know, like bluegrass, I think, is where at least my impression is that's where Ricky Skag's that's where his heart really is.

4:25 Speaker 1: And I'm watching him with this bluegrass band on stage, and it really caused me to just that experience really have a whole new level of respect for what they were doing, because I'm thinking, you know, this is I mean, I'm a musician, I play bass, I've played in some rock bands, you know, But I'm watching this bluegrass band play and I'm thinking that looks really difficult. What they're doing, both individually and together as a group, to me looks very complicated. And it really impressed me, and I came away from that experience with a whole new respect for blue.

5:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's quite difficult to be proficient at and I would not call myself a fantastic bluegrass player. Still I can hold my own on a stage, but yeah, it's its own animal with the you know, flat picking and even the rhythm on guitar, for for that's just really really difficult. But and then usually they're just in front of like a canned mike, and so y'all have to kind of balance your own tone and volume based on where you stand and try not to get the other person's way. It's it's quite interritate, but it's super fun.

5:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting too what you said about about you know, they're around a mic, a single mike. I hadn't even thought about that part, but yeah, that's true. Uh, there's there's a real art and a skill to that. So so you started playing really young, Like when did you begin writing your own songs? Do you know?

5:50 Speaker 2: Can you put it?

5:51 Speaker 3: Yeah? That didn't come until years later. So yeah, I started into college and by then, you know, my sister moved out, and so I was kind of playing and singing my own stuff, just a lot of like nineties covers is what I like singing and listening to. Yeah, and then I'd always had this appreciation for chicken picking, and I mean every day I just try to figure out how in the world to do that. Well, I finally bought a Kelly when I was twenty two or twenty three, and I started picking it up, learned some Dwight Yoakum songs and just that type of thing, and then decided to start performing a little bit.

6:32 Speaker 3: So we started a cover band for nineties country and then a few years into that is when I started writing songs and The very first song I ever wrote was the Celebrity Club. I don't know if you've heard that one yet.

6:45 Speaker 1: That's the one we just played right before we talked to you. Yeah, so that was the first song you ever wrote.

6:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, And what happened is I got invited to open up for a guy named john Ford Coley, who is best known with England Dan and I'd actually never heard of him, he dedfully, but I was invited to open for his show and I went and played and it was really cool and just had a really fun experience. And I had about a fifteen minute drive home and that chorus came to me in full on that drive. Yeah, And you know, a few months later, it finally worked out the rest of it. That was the first time I ever tried writing a song, and it worked out pretty good.

7:24 Speaker 3: So I started writing more.

7:25 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, well, yeah, you got off to a great start. And you know, getting to play with john Ford Coley, that's that's a It's easy to see how that would be a big inspiration for you. You also performed with the Saint George Symphony. Tell me about that.

7:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's mostly due to my sister. Oh, it was her senior year, and she had her you know, kind of showcase performance as her graduating part of music, and so she convinced her professor to let her do The Devil went down to George with the symphony. Oh wow that they needed somebody to sing it and somebody that could kind of do justice to country. So they asked me to step in, and I played guitar and singing The Type went down to Georgia with the St. George Symphony.

8:17 Speaker 1: Oh no kidding. Oh that's pretty cool. Is there is that online anywhere? Like, is there a video of that?

8:23 Speaker 3: I would have to track it down. I would assume there is, but I haven't went looking for it.

8:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that would just be Uh, that would just be cool to see. I mean, I assume it went well.

8:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, it went really well. Yeah, they didn't know what was coming with the symphony playing that, but they did a really good job.

8:40 Speaker 2: Oh that's cool. That's cool.

8:42 Speaker 1: Is it difficult to balance everything that you're doing because obviously you're very busy, you know, as as we you know, we discussed briefly earlier. You know, Uh, the work that you do is challenging, I would imagine, I mean, is it hard to fit everything all in.

8:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is. Apart from the ranch, actually own a little service company that does like window cleaning and Christmas lights and pool cleaning and things like that. Oh and so that's where I make most of my cash flow. And then I can, you know, spend my free time doing music stuff and then of course the ranch and everything too. But and completely independent as of right now, just kind of work in my own schedule. And the nice thing about it though, is that I do have my parents that help out a lot.

9:28 Speaker 3: My dad actually drums for me most of the time, and my mom plays bass.

9:32 Speaker 2: Oh wow.

9:33 Speaker 3: And then when I have my sister on the fiddle, it's pretty easy to books gigs and go out and play. So yeah, in that aspect, they've really made it easy to do music, which is nice.

9:42 Speaker 2: Oh that's fantastic.

9:44 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and having I mean, obviously you're you know, it's always helpful when you decide you want to be a musician and you want to do that professionally. It's helpful when you have family members who are supportive, because not everyone's family is, but you've you've got that plus you know, plus more right, because they're not only supportive but they're actively participating.

10:04 Speaker 2: That's great.

10:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they're really good for that.

10:08 Speaker 2: That's amazing.

10:09 Speaker 1: I would imagine, is is it easy as far as you know? There must be because your family. There's probably something almost intuitive I would imagine about how you you know, come together in terms of learning the songs, playing the songs, how you gel together on stage.

10:27 Speaker 2: I mean, does that make it easier? Do you think that because your family?

10:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so much easier. And it's interesting. We'll have a lot of people after shows come up to us and just say that there was something different because they could tell that we just clicked, especially with my sister. You know, she'll do harmony vocals for me, and I'll let her sing some some good female vocal country songs too, and we just bounce back and forth so easy. And I mean if we mess up, usually people don't know because we just start playing whatever the other person is playing and cover it up.

11:01 Speaker 2: Yeah.

11:02 Speaker 3: It makes it really really easy to perform that way, just because we've spent so much time together. We can read the cues. We can Yeah, it's it's really nice and I've played with other people and it works well, but it takes a lot more practice. And then you know, improvise, they are doing improve and stuff's a lot harder too with just a hired group because they don't really know where your brain's going and things. So yeah, having family play is definitely the best thing.

11:29 Speaker 1: Now, how has it worked with her being out because you know, obviously you know you mentioned we're having a baby. Do you have a different fiddle player who plays with you or are you taking a break from live shows until she's able to come back or how does that work? Yeah?

11:43 Speaker 3: We uh, because we started putting out music, I've actually had a massive influx of live shows in the area. Good and so I've got a pedal steel player out here. He's probably the only one in southern Utah. Found him at this random little show that I played yearsuly go and asked if you wanted to join the band. So if he's available, he's there most of the time. And then there's another one that a fiddle player. I think he played for the Bargee Wranglers at one point, and he's also kind of a tour guide and stuff, so he's not always around, but if he's in town, he'll come and play with me every time.

12:19 Speaker 3: So and then I play my own lead guitar, so if I actually have to, I can make the show a little exciting with the trio band. But yeah, I definitely like another aspect of music there.

12:30 Speaker 1: So that must be cool though, that you can sort of work in different configurations. I've always you know, I I I'm not active anymore as far as playing, but I've played in a lot of bands and I but I never I never played in a band where you could have different configurations depending on you know, who was available or what might work for the venue or whatever it is. And be able to take take the existing songs and just sort of adapt them like.

12:56 Speaker 2: You're able to do. That must be cool too.

12:58 Speaker 1: I would imagine there's something sort of liberating because about that, because it gives you a certain flexibility that you might not have if, you know, if you were in a different kind of band.

13:08 Speaker 2: Oh.

13:08 Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah. I got this bass player who's written some blues stuff, And if we're out on a show and you know, I'm either sung out or we don't have the fiddle or something, I'll just let him take the mic and we'll just jam out on a blue song for five or six minutes. And yeah, it's it's really easy to just kind of mold around the music and the song rather than be so stuck in a show that you can't perform. So right, it is liberating that way, and and in the other aspect, I think it's nice to kind of have the leisure and freedom to play venues that are really forgiving that way, where they're just there to hear good music.

13:46 Speaker 3: They don't they're not really coming for this, you know, a list show from Bill and Jones. They're coming to see who this kid is and if you can play music. So yeah, it's really fun to just be a musician.

13:57 Speaker 1: So excellent, excellent. So what's kind of the long term trajectory for you? You know, we have some some singles that you sent us. Are these do you have an EP on the way or a full album or are you Are you going to continue releasing singles do you think?

14:11 Speaker 2: Or what's kind of your long term plan.

14:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a really good question. And I'm having a little bit of difficulty figuring out what to do just based on the way music performs nowadays. But I've got six songs already made, two more to be released. But I'm heading to Nashville again today and I'll be cutting another four songs. Oh, and then at that point they're all kind of cowboy rodeo Western themed, So I'm thinking maybe doing more of like a waterfall release into an EP album.

14:47 Speaker 2: M HM.

14:49 Speaker 3: Singles seem to do really, really well into in today's statistics, just they just get their own moment in the spotlight and perform well because you throw an album out, they may only get through two or three songs and then never hear the rest. And yeah, I love all my songs, so I want I want each one to be able to get heard. So whether I do singles or an EP is still a question. But I've got another four that we're recording this uffcoming week and they'll be out in the next few months, I think.

15:18 Speaker 1: So oh fantastic. So you're going to Nashville to do that? What the ones that we've been playing already were those also recorded there in Nashville?

15:27 Speaker 3: They were? Yeah, And really the Nashville is just such a fun place. It's it's just got the best of the best as far as musicians go. But really it's the session players. I think they're the most valuable there for us, because I mean I could sit down there and I could beat with a hammer on a song for one hundred hours and still only come up with seventy percent of what these guys come up with. So it's just really nice to go in there. I can show them my song, tell them exactly what I'm thinking, and they'll play it just you know, it's just right the first time that they play it.

16:05 Speaker 3: So yeah, in that aspect, that's why I do Nashville. And they're really really good and they're good to work with me, and I may not be streamlined country right now that they they understand the vibe I'm going for and they're willing to make it happen.

16:20 Speaker 2: So right right, no doubt. Is it intimidating at all going there?

16:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely was. Yeah. Yeah, I have a a friend, so I got into Nashville because I was playing up at Bryce Canyon as kind of a filler for a summer.

16:38 Speaker 2: Yeah.

16:38 Speaker 3: Bryce Canyon Wranglers is what they're called.

16:40 Speaker 2: Okay.

16:41 Speaker 3: Tim Gates is the lead singer up there. He's also in Due West band and he had a lead guitar player that's been with him for a while that I met out there, and we're just really headed off. Like every day I was up there. We'd spend most of the day just playing guitar and jamming back and forth. He keep me something and so I ended up flying out for Nashville and staying at his house and he kind of introduced me to the whole scene. And then Tim he was able to hook me up with the engineer. And I mean, they're just such good people out there.

17:15 Speaker 3: It's intimidating because they're so talented, right, but they love music so much that they aren't They're not that judgmental about it. You know. They really invite you in and as long as you're willing to work on good music, they're willing to do it with you.

17:30 Speaker 1: So yeah, well that's excellent, that's exciting. Well, Dylan, this has been wonderful. In a moment, I think we're gonna end the segment with one more of the songs that you sent us. Love ain't what it used to be. Another great song. But where's the best place for people to go online to keep up with everything all things Dylan Jones? Where should people go online to keep up with what you're doing?

17:54 Speaker 3: Yeah, the website right now is Dylan Jones band dot com. D I L L O N. I'm also on social media Dylan Jones Country. But yeah, if you search any of those things online you should be able to find it. But I keep a live list of all of our upcoming shows and things like that, so yeah, if you ever want to try to find us or see where we're playing, that's a good place to start.

18:20 Speaker 2: Outstanding. Outstanding.

18:21 Speaker 1: Well, Dylan, this has been wonderful, and listen when you've got you know, because obviously you've got more new music coming up, so we'd love to feature it here when it's ready, and of course we'll have you back on the show to talk all about it. So it's been wonderful talking with you today. And thanks you again, you know, thank you for joining us at what for you as an early hour, but then again actually and for you, I mean in your time zone, but actually it's not early for you because you're used to you're used to getting up early.

18:47 Speaker 3: So yeah, well thanks for having me. This was really great.

18:51 Speaker 1: Absolutely, we'll do it again in the future. We'll talk to you soon, and Dylan, thank you again so much.

18:56 Speaker 2: Take care you two day all right, bye bye, all right.

19:00 Speaker 1: That is Dylan Jones all the way from Utah and we're gonna give this a spend. This is another great song from his love. His voice Dylan Jones. This is called Love. Ain't what it used to be.