It’s rare that an artist’s favorite song is left off an album. That may or may not have been the case with “Out For Blood,” which failed to make the cut when it came time for the Bones Of J.R. Jones’ Jonathon Linaberry and co-producer Kiyoshi Matsuyama to sequence Slow Lightning. Either way, Linaberry gives high marks to the misfit track, which he describes as “understated but still direct.”
His solution: Add legs to a memorable 2023 release with a deluxe edition that includes the simmering ballad, plus a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown” (a longtime Linaberry favorite). The expanded version of Slow Lightning is out tomorrow on Tone Tree Music.
“‘Out For Blood’ is one of those tunes that fills that gap of a long night for me,” says Linaberry, a native New Yorker who’s living in the Catskills these days. “It just feels like it slows everything down—and I love that.”
It’s also the only track on Slow Lightning that was co-written by Matsuyama. “Vibrating on a similar frequency as someone is hard and can never be forced,” says Linaberry. “I think we got lucky, and this one just sort fell into its own groove. It’s special that way.”
We’re proud to premiere “Out For Blood.”
—Hobart Rowland
Catch the Bones Of J.R. Jones live.
