The gorgeous ‘Forever’ by Karen Jonas is an unselfconscious, open-hearted song of love and tenderness. Beginning with rhythmic picking, which gently urges us on throughout, the song features an excellent Dobro performance from multi-instrumentalist Jay Starling, whose notes slip and slide around Jonas’s voice beautifully. Meanwhile, Seth Morrissey’s upright bass is woozy and warm, giving a real fullness to the overall sound. Jonas’s words and vocal performance are intimate and captivating; almost spoken at times, hushed and sweetly melodic, it feels as if she’s singing to the listener personally.
Jonas told AUK about the song: “I don’t write a lot of love songs. But I was doing some thinking about what love should feel like, and I decided on ‘warm’ and ‘safe.’ I wrote ‘Forever’ to describe what that sounds like. We made the video at one of my favorite venues nearby, The Heist in Bowling Green, Va. Tim Bray (guitar), Seth Morrissey (bass), Jay Starling (dobro) and I had a fun evening drinking manhattans and playing through the song. I knew our friend and longtime videographer Ryan Poe would bring just the right atmosphere to this glowy video. The Heist manager (and best bartender around) Alicia Vossberg helped decorate the set and poured our drinks for the video. It was all a little magical, like ‘Forever.'”
The single is taken from the forthcoming album ‘The Restless’, due out on 3rd March 2023. Jonas says of the album: “The record tells a story, but it isn’t linear. There are throughlines: this collection of dreamy, raw, romantic, and ill-fated stories. It’s important to me that the songs don’t judge the stories, they just dig in, leaving you to draw your own conclusions.” Through the dark, tragic narratives that unfold, Jonas explores and exposes the vulnerable side of human nature and relationships. Jonas benefits from the excellent musicianship of her collaborators, especially the talented multi-instrumentalist Jay Starling. She notes: “I’m glad we took our time on this record. I needed to listen and reflect. Last year I wrote a book of poems called Gumballs with the help of my best friend, editor and lyrical co-writer Andie Burke. It was cathartic and confessional, and I wanted to bring that energy to this album. Andie, Seth Morrissey and I worked as a team to get comfortable with these stories and bring them to life.” Order the new album here – it promises to be an achingly reflective piece of work. Check it out.
