Review ...has an epic sweep, both musically and lyrically, shot through with a satirical wit and unexpected tenderness. -- Hugh BlumenfeldA modern-day visionary. -- Independent Songwriter Web Magazine, November, 1999[JP Jones] is worth serious attention. -- Victor K. Heyman, Sing Out From the Artist Salvation Street was mastered one week before the attack. I have lived under the threat of terrorism since I was born. I've already lost people I love the most to terrorism of one sort or another. I know how to grieve and I know how to praise. Everybody dies sooner or later. My response is the weapon of beauty. I am not interested in nationalism. I am not interested in sectarian religions. I am not interested in violence. I am interested in healing trauma. I am interested in music, and words, and anything that dances. The only thing that matters now, or ever will matter is reverence for life. JP Jones October 1, 2001 Newport About the Artist Described recenly by Independent Songwriter Web Magazine as "one of the best songwriters in the indie world," JP Jones released his first album on CBS Columbia/Windfall label way back in 1973. It would be more than 18 years (and some 300 songs) before hed release his next. Jones was born April 10, 1949 in Wakefield, RI. From the age of six he grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Self-taught as a teenager, he cut his musical teeth playing piano for church youth groups and experimenting with Classical compositions on the old upright piano in his parents front hall. By the age of 17 hed mastered the fundamentals of composition and orchestration, but it wasnt until two years later, while in seminary school, that he picked up his first guitar. A career in the clergy was not to be. Jones left seminary school, transferring to, then graduating from Amherst (MA) College as a Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude scholar in music composition. Classically trained at Amherst during the political and social turmoil of the late 1960s, the spiritual orientation hed exhibited by first enrolling at seminary school would remain a constant for Jones. His belief system, however, had already undergone radical changes and hed find no future solace in fundamentalist Christianity. Meanwhile JPs generation was coming of age and a revolution in popular music was taking place. It was during this time that Jones took up songwriting. Fresh out of Amherst he landed the Columbia/Windfall contract and set out on a career as a troubadour. In the 1970s JP played venues as diverse as coffeehouses, clubs, outdoor festivals and arenas while sharing bills with such notables as Tim Hardin, a young Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and the Byrds. The first album, however, wasnt a success (only 8,000 units were sold), and when Columbia and Windfall decided to part company/ies, Jones recording contract was a casualty. He moved to Brooklyn, NY taking a day job as a commercial artist while pursuing a second major label deal part-time via submission of demo tapes. Personally these were lean times, but they werent lean musically. Jones penned hundreds of songs in the 1980s and released two independently produced singles. He also played out on the club circuit, first as front man for the New York City based band John Train (who took their name in tribute to the Phil Ochs pseudonym), and later as an open mic solo act at clubs like Folk City and CBGBs. Jones got tired of the grind and left New York, moving to eastern Connecticut in 1991. That spring, with the help of family members, JP started VISION COMPANY RECORDS. Jones first CD release, the electric and eclectic Voluntown followed later that year. Rooted in a spiritual and social consciousness, Voluntown is a folk/rock record, and one not without an edge. For Jones, its release and the creation of VISION COMPANY offered long-awaited freedom from the constraints of demo tapes and the politics of the music biz. In series of small steps, Jones began to reconnect as a performer with the New England folk circuit. He took coffeehouse gigs and had live performances featured on compilation CDs (along with Jack Hardy, Dar Williams, The Nields, etc.) in support of WWUHs 1993 & 1994 Folk Next Door fund-raisers. VISION COMPANY released his 1994 all-acoustic Broken Open disc and he contributed additional tracks on non-profit projects like the Hope Center of Providences 1996 Our Invincible Summer, and the Rhode Island Songwriters Associations 12 Steps of Christmas. It was during these years that Jones met future wife Kerstin Zettmar and lost his mother to aneurysm and stroke. His mother had been a strong supporter and a primary force behind the creation of VISION COMPANY. Her illness and death had a profound affect on Jones. Meanwhile, life at home was becoming more secure and centered. It was in the midst of this dichotomy of grief and reaffirmation that Jones began work on his next musical project. A complete departure from his earlier songwriter oriented efforts, Jones borrowed from traditional, Celtic and classical influences while creating a collection of song-length instrumental compositions which he entitled Bard. Composed on computer, Bards musical voices were programmed as midi files. This gave Jones minute control over the details of sound. Polished, powerful and organized around the theme of loss and grief, in October 1997 Bard was an Airwaves Top 50 CD as reported by New Age Voice magazine. Jones and Zettmar (a visual artist whos paintings and tapestries are featured on the cover of three Jones releases) were married the following July. In September, Jones gathered some musical friends and booked three days in the studio. It was during these sessions that his critically acclaimed, 15-song and 72-minute long Angels on the Road, was produced. A 25-year retrospective of previously unrecorded songs, Angels on the Road opened the door to what would prove to be Jones most prolific artistic period. He immediately followed work on Angels, by personally re-mixing and re-mastering his 1994 Broken Open tracks. VISION COMPANY reissued the reworked Broken Open collection in June 1999. In the spring of that year the artist couple purchased a fixer-up home in Newport, RI. By this time Jones had already begun work on a new project which eventually would become his dark and powerful Ashes release. One of Jones first orders of business at the new homestead was to set up a bedroom studio suitable for mixing and overdubbing. The summer of 99 saw Jones spend equal time with spackle, dry wall, mixing and microphones. Jones current musical projects include the annotation and publication of a 125-title songbook. Untitled as yet, the book will feature artwork by Zettmar and published as well as previously unpublished work by Jones. At the same time, Jones and Zettmar recently started hosting a house concert series. According to Jones the series offers him an opportunity to give back to the folk community. The other day the phrase, you gotta stay hungry occurred to me, says Jones. All of a sudden, that looked like complete insanity to me. You flip it around on its head and say, when youre really, really full, thats when youve got something to offer to somebody else. Thats whats happening in my life as I get older. All of these things are coming together so that Im feeling more full and complete. My interests in the world around me, in writing and everything Im doing artistically. As he sees it, Its a bigger world than what I have and what I dont have
Im interested in other peoples dreams. See more
