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All Music Guide:
Pop singer Marti Jones first emerged as the frontwoman of the group Color Me Gone before issuing her solo debut Unsophisticated Time -- produced by future husband Don Dixon -- in 1985. Though the recipient of widespread critical acclaim, Jones found little commercial success with LPs like 1986's Match Game (recorded with guests Mitch Easter, T-Bone Burnett, and Darlene Love) and 1988's Used Guitars (featuring contributions from Marshall Crenshaw and Janis Ian), and she was dropped by her label, A&M. After signing to RCA for 1990's Any Kind of Lie, Jones disappeared from sight before signing to Sugar Hill and returning in 1996 with a pair of new releases, Live at Spirit Square and My Long-Haired Life. In 2002 her album My Tidy Doily Dream (another release produced by husband Don Dixon) appeared on the Dixon Archival Remnants label, but Jones subsequently focused much of her creative energy on painting, under the name Marti Jones Dixon. Lucky Stars: New Lullabies for Old Souls, an album credited to the husband-and-wife duo of Marti Jones and Don Dixon, was made available for digital download in March 2008.
Wikipedia:
Marti Jones is a singer and painter originally from Uniontown, Ohio.
Jones was initially a member of the band Color Me Gone, who recorded one EP for A&M Records in 1983. Her first solo album, 1985's "Unsophisticated Time" (A&M), was produced by Don Dixon. Jones and Dixon subsequently married, and Dixon continued to produce all of his wife's subsequent albums.
Two more albums for A&M followed in the 1980s, each of them featuring a wide range of supporting musicians (including Marshall Crenshaw, Mitch Easter, The Uptown Horns, Paul Carrack, T-Bone Burnett, Darlene Love and many others). Jones' sound encompassed jangle pop, ballads, and even southern-style soul material. 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.
Jones' albums featured both original material (mostly written by Dixon, or Dixon and Jones together), and covers of songs by singer/songwriters such as Janis Ian, Elvis Costello, John Hiatt, Jackie DeShannon, Richard Barone, and Graham Parker. For a move to the RCA label in 1990, Jones relied more heavily on original material and adapted a somewhat more adult-contemporary sound. She was dropped by RCA after one album (Any Kind Of Lie).
After losing her label, Jones, 35, decided to settle down and have a child. It wasn't until her daughter, Shane Marie Dixon, was 4 years old before she made another album, my "My Long-Haired Life". Having cut her characteristically long hair when she became a mother, the album alludes to her life of singing back when her hair was long. The album's cover shows a self-made painting of Jones sitting in a barber's chair, her golden locks strewn upon the floor.
On subsequent recordings, she returned to her customary mix of originals and covers.
In the past few years, Jones has curtailed her singing career and has focused on painting (under the name Marti Jones Dixon). She did, however, tour with singer/songwriter Amy Rigby as "The Cynical Girls" in 2005. Then in 2008, she and her husband released Lucky Stars: New Lullabies for Old Souls a download-only album credited to Marti Jones & Don Dixon. Billed as an album of "calm, soothing music" (and as a departure from both Jones' and Dixon's previous sound), it featured six vocal songs and five instrumentals.
In 2003, Jones recorded the song "Room With a View" for the tribute to Let's Active cd "Every Word."
In fall of 2009, Jones toured with her husband to perform a series of live acoustic performances.
Official site (for paintings)[edit]
http://www.martijonesdixon.com
