Karen Jonas (Photo by Amber Renee)

Local singer-songwriter Karen Jonas independently releases Butter, her third full-length album, on Friday, June 1. On the very next day, she will perform her new country/Americana tunes at Pearl Street Warehouse!

Hailing from Fredericksburg, Virginia, Karen is mom to four kids and performs roughly 150 shows a year. “Whether I’m finishing up a gig at midnight or getting pounced on by my kids at 6:30am, I usually feel like my life is a circus,” Karen says. “So I started writing songs about my circus.”

Listen to “Butter” by Karen Jonas on Soundcloud:

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Karen recorded the new album at night at Wally Cleaver’s Recording Studio in Fredericksburg after putting her kids to bed. Tim Bray, her guitarist and musical partner for nearly half a decade, joined her for those nighttime recording sessions, as did a number of other musicians who laced Butter’s 10 songs with pedal steel, B3 organ, upright piano, layers of guitar, and seven-piece horn arrangements.

“My first two albums featured a lot of heartbroken songs,” Karen said. “That didn’t feel authentic for this album. Butter is about my story now, as a working musician and mother — about the challenges of each role and, especially, the challenge of balancing the two. It’s about baking my cake and eating it, too.”

As Karen says, there are a lot of successful mothers “making time to pursue their passions” and thereby “changing the world.” You can go along for the ride. Buy your tickets online.

Karen Jonas
The Linemen
w/ Cary Hudson (Blue Mountain)
Pearl Street Warehouse
Saturday, June 2
Doors @ 7pm
$15
All ages