• Marti Jones & Don Dixon with special guest Kelly Ryan
• 7:00pm

$20 in advance/$25 at the door

About Don Dixon

Don Dixon was born on December 13, 1950 in Lancaster, South Carolina. His college roommate was the writer Bruce Brooks.

Dixon is considered to be one of the key producers of what is called the jangle pop movement of the early 1980s. He spent thirteen years as a member of NC cult heroes Arrogance. Around 1983, Dixon attracted attention by co-producing with Mitch Easter, R.E.M.'s landmark debut LP Murmur. He then spent several years producing the work of varied artists including Chris Stamey (formerly of The dB's) and The Smithereens. Considered to be a highlight of this period was Tommy Keene's Run Now EP (co-produced with T Bone Burnett). This success led to Dixon recording his solo debut Most of the Girls Like to Dance (But Only Some of the Boys Like To) , a further affirmation of his love of classic pop melodies and spiky, Nick Lowe-inspired wordplay.

After producing wife Marti Jones' Unsophisticated Time, he released his second solo effort, Romeo at Juilliard, in 1987 and the live Chi-Town Budget Show a year later. After 1989's EEE, Dixon's recording career went into hiatus for several years and he returned to producing, helming efforts for the Smithereens, Richard Barone, and James McMurtry before finally releasing Romantic Depressive in 1995. Another lengthy hiatus preceded the early 2000 release of The Invisible Man and its 2001 follow-up, Note Pad #38. His latest release, The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room followed in summer 2006.

Besides his life as a musician and producer, Don launched an acting career playing an alcoholic director in Todd Graff's 2003 film Camp.

About Marti Jones

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 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.

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 fall of 2009, Jones began touring with her husband to perform a series of live acoustic performances.