Released on October 28, 2016, JW-Jones’ High Temperature has been heating up the blues scene around the world since. The album won the International Blues Challenge 2017 “Best Self-produced CD” Award, Billboard called it a “Hot-Shot Debut” hitting the US sales charts at #8, the album stayed for 11 weeks at #2 on Roots Music Report, and several music videos for High Temperature have launched including “Where Do You Think I Was”, “Same Mistakes”, and the deeply personal “Who I Am”, with another coming soon for “Away Too Long”.
Produced by Colin Linden, High Temperature is the follow-up to the JUNO Award nominated Belmont Boulevard, which was nominated for a Maple Blues Award, held the #1 position on roots radio stations across Canada for 13 weeks and catapulted him to the Billboard Top 10 Blues charts in the USA.
High Temperature features touring bassist Laura Greenberg, as well as an all-star cast of session musicians; bassist Dominic Davis (Jack White, Tom Jones, Beck), keyboard player Kevin McKendree (Brian Setzer, Delbert McClinton), and drummer Bryan Owings (Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant). Liam Russell sings harmonies on several tracks, and JW welcomes his first recorded duet with hit-songwriter Jaida Dreyer on her song How Many Hearts (co-written with Colin Linden). The release features original songs penned with the incredible Ottawa-based songwriter, Dick Cooper (Cooper Brothers), including the deeply personal “Who I Am”, which Jones uses as a vehicle to open-up even more than on Belmont Boulevard’s “Cocaine Boy”.
Besides the tremendous response to High Temperature, Jones has now performed with Buddy Guy six times in the last two years, including being invited to play with his band, and Chad Smith, drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers made a guest appearance with Jones earlier this year.
