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Mike Vernon, who by now had his Blue Horizon record label. Vernon
recounts that although Jones had been very easy to work with on the ‘In
London’ album, things were a little more strained this time around. This
may have had something to do with the difficulties he was having in
continuing his career, with
work so scarce, but Vernon
acknowledges that he was
professional enough to get the
job done, and to follow the
agreement they had not to
re-record any of his old
material. Once again, Jones
was persuaded to play guitar
on four tracks, and he was
accompanied throughout by
upright bass and drums
(Brian Brocklehurst (sb) and
Dougie Wright (dms) Ed). The
entire album was recorded in
one day (2nd July 1968) and
released on Blue Horizon as
‘Now Resident in Europe’.
Evidently, Jones was very excited about the album, claiming that this one
would put him at “the top of the tree”, but unfortunately it was lost in the
sheer number of blues albums released that year, many of which showed
that Jones music was perhaps a representation of a bygone era.
He was understandably upset by the experience, which only seemed to
indicate that the bad luck accompanying him for much of his life would
simply not let him be.
That said, he was added to the Lippmann Rau American Folk-Blues Festival
for 1968, which visited 10 countries across Europe, and gave him exposure
outside of the small clubs he had previously been working for so many years.
Blues author Tony Russell tells us that he would walk on to the stage
clutching a copy of the Blue Horizon album, which would be propped up
against the microphone stand to remind the audience that he had a new
recording for sale. He also forsook the piano during the festival, in order to
perform a few songs on guitar. This apparently did not go down too well