Laurence Jones

The blues reached Laurence Jones through his father's record collection, and it shaped everything he has played since. Born in 1992 just outside Liverpool, he moved as a boy to Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, having started classical guitar at seven before the blues took over. The English guitarist and singer-songwriter has released four solo albums and is signed to Ruf Records.

By his mid-teens Jones was fronting Free Beer, a cover band with a female singer, and at seventeen he formed a blues trio of his own. He was enrolled at the University of Birmingham when he chose a tour with Johnny Winter and Walter Trout over his final exams. His debut, Thunder in the Sky, appeared on Promise Records in 2012, the year he was also diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Temptation, recorded in Lafayette, Louisiana, followed for Ruf Records in 2014, and that year he picked up Young Artist of the Year at the British Blues Awards. Take Me High, produced by Mike Vernon, arrived in 2016, and in 2017 he supported Vintage Trouble and toured with Kenny Wayne Shepherd.