FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – On the album cover of Karen Jonas’ “The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch,” released in August 2024, Karen is depicted holding a drink and a bottle of liquor, sporting a neutral expression and a few tattoos here and there. Throw in a 1960s floor-model television set, an ashtray, a religious statue, and an electric guitar, and it all screams “kitsch,” from the day when it was hip to be kitsch.
Jonas and a photographer tossed around a couple of ideas before settling on the art for the cover. “We were thinking about it for a couple of months, it was fun,” she said.
Her adventure through this aura is described as “an Elvis-inspired exploration of consumerism, commercialism, and plastic pink flamingos,” it says, but this is just a glimpse of her intention.
Are people happier with plastic Elvis statues and pink flamingos that end up in a trash dump forever? She’s taking an environmental stand that starts at the five-and-dime store down the street. “It keeps me up at night. Our kids are inheriting a shopping habit and a huge pile of garbage,” she says on her website. Instead of labeling herself an environmentalist, “I’m a thinker,” she said.
In her “Gold in the Sand” music video, the footage is shot with a cream-colored filter to give everything a soft look, and the lyrics reflect that mood. It’s a love ballad set in a small town where’s she’s seductively sings to the camera which wanders around, showing her thigh, shoulder, shag haircut and finally a game of solitare on the floor. The bottle of liquor is on the floor, too, but there is no drinking.
In another music video, Karen is singing a dreamy bookstore rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s 1970 classic “If You Could Read My Mind.” Other musical inspirations include Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon.
In 2023, she released an album called “The Restless,” featuring a piano-driven song, “Paris Breeze,” where smoke rings take center stage. In another called “Country Songs,” she praises the country genre with fiddle and a twangy guitar, revealing her versatility.
This coming Saturday night, she returns to the Sunken Well in Fredericksburg for a solo show, where she has played before. “I love the Sunken Well,” she said, but doesn’t align herself with bluegrass or country genres. “I’m a writer first,” she said.
