While her peers were listening to Michael Jackson, Kenny Loggins and Prince she began to seek out recordings by Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline.
[3] It was there that she also gained a sense of her musical heritage when she discovered her grandfather, Robert Lee Maranville, was a talented singer and had been in a Knoxville band with Chet Atkins.
"I found my first Smithsonian Folkways recording of Southern ballads up at Cades Cove in the Smokies on a drive with him", Jones explained to the Columbus Dispatch.
It was the death of Maranville in 2000 that caused her to move back to the northeastern United States and enter a period of personal reflection: "I wrote this last project [My Remembrance of You] in a cabin in the woods, trying to recover my balance after the loss of my grandfather.
Other musicians include Duke Levine on strings, Bob Dick on bass, Lorne Entress on percussion, and Jay Ungar on fiddle.
Perhaps the most noted track in the collection is "Pony", a song told from the viewpoint of a young Native American girl in the 1920s who is forced to assimilate to a life and culture that is not her own.
In 2009, Jones released "Better Times Will Come" on Proper Records which included "Henry Russell's Last Words," "Cracked and Broken," and "The Day I Die."
Jones is frequently compared to other distinct voices in Americana music such as Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent, and Alison Krauss.
"[3] Jones has shared the stage with many artists, including Janis Ian, Steve Earle, Martina McBride, Nanci Griffith, Richard Thompson, John Gorka, Mary Gauthier, Old Crow Medicine Show, Guy Clark, and many others.