Part lullaby, part inner dialogue, Laney Jones’ “Say Yes” (AHPO) is so unassuming that it seems like an afterthought at first. Dig deeper, and you uncover a vulnerability that’s a little unnerving, as if you’re peering into someone’s soul with the prying eyes of a voyeur.
“The experience is akin to a late-night, deep, kitchen-table talk with a friend that happens to be distilled into a song,” says Jones, nicely summing up the vibe of her latest single. “After three-and-a-half minutes of catharsis, my hope is that you feel deeper, more connected and freer on the other side.”
A Berklee School of Music grad who was raised on an exotic animal farm in Central Florida, Jones is starting to find her place in Nashville since relocating there with her husband and musical collaborator, Brian Dowd, in 2017. It helps that she’s a versatile songwriter, dabbling quite convincingly in pop, Americana, acoustic folk and indie rock. She’s made ends meet by licensing songs to the likes of Guinness and Google, while earning raves for her 2022 release, Stories Up High, produced by Andrjia Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Langhorne Slim). Jones and her backup band, the Spirits (with Dowd on drums), have opened for the Heartless Bastards, Kurt Vile and other bigger names.
But there have been some bumps in the road. “I’ve struggled hardcore in with self-confidence and depression,” says Jones. “It’s taken deep work for me just to seek help with it, but something that helped get me there was guided meditation. Sometimes it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly is dogging you. It’s a tangled ball of string that takes time to unravel, and some knots may never fully come undone.”
For Jones, just knowing life won’t last forever is oddly comforting. “Though scary, it makes me feel more alive,” she says. “Get over yourself and get busy living—at least, that’s what I needed to hear … and where the core of ‘Say Yes’ comes from.”
We’re proud to premiere Laney Jones’ “Say Yes” video.
—Hobart Rowland
