Nic Jones
Encyclopedia
Nicolas Paul "Nic" Jones (born 9 January 1947) is an English folk singer
, fingerstyle guitarist and fiddle
player whose professional career spanned the years 1964-1982. He recorded five solo albums, and was a frequent guest performer.
, Kent
. He first learned to play guitar as a young teenager and early musical influences included such artists as The Shadows
, Duane Eddy
, Chet Atkins
, Wes Montgomery
and Ray Charles
. His interest in folk music was aroused by some old school friends who had formed a folk band called The Halliard. When the members of the group decided to turn professional, one of them left to pursue a different career and Nic was invited to take his place. Whilst playing with The Halliard, Jones learned to play the fiddle, and also how to research and arrange traditional material. The group toured the UK between 1964 and 1968, eventually splitting up when two of the members decided to pursue careers outside the folk music business.
In 1968 Jones married Julia Seymour and they eventually were to have three children together – Daniel (d), Helen and Joe. The couple settled in Chelmsford
and Jones decided to pursue a career as a solo folk artist. He started playing professional gigs in 1969, and in 1970 released his first album, Ballads and Songs
for Trailer Records. Between 1971 and 1980 Jones recorded four more solo albums - three more for Trailer Records and his last, "Penguin Eggs", for Topic
. Apart from Jones' trademark vocals, fingerstyle guitar and fiddle
, the records also introduced guest instrumentalists playing piano, harmonium
, bodhran
, melodeon
and recorders.
During his career, Jones was much in demand as a session musician and he guested on albums by leading UK artists such as June Tabor
, Shirley Collins
, Barbara Dickson
, Richard Thompson and many others. He was also a member of short-lived folk group "Bandoggs", comprisng Jones, Tony Rose, Peter Coe and Chris Coe, and which released one album in 1978.
In February 1982 Jones was involved in a serious car accident while driving home after a gig at Glossop
Folk Club. Jones' car ran into a lorry pulling out of "Whittlesea
brickworks" on the road between Peterborough
and March
in Cambridgeshire
. He suffered very serious injuries, including many broken bones and brain damage, and required intensive care treatment and hospitalisation for a total of eight months. Jones's injuries left him with permanent physical co-ordination problems and unable to play the guitar as well as before – he could also no longer play the fiddle at all. The accident effectively ended his career as a touring and recording professional musician.
Jones now lives in Devon
and continues to play guitar and write songs for his own pleasure and enjoys playing chess. His wife Julia set up the record label
Mollie Music which has issued four albums of re-mastered live recordings from Jones's early career.
On 5 August 2010, after an absence of 28 years, Jones made a return to the stage. He appeared at an event dedicated to his music at Sidmouth Folk Week. Jones sang three songs with one of his former bands Bandoggs and commented that he would "consider performing again – but wanted to sing his own songs."
, whom he acknowledges as an important influence. These included tunings such as the well-known DADGAD
, but also variants of C and G major/minor/modal tunings heard on such tracks as "Canada-I-O
" and "Billy Don't Weep For Me". Jones was also influenced by classical and flamenco
guitar playing.
He played a Fylde
Oberon acoustic guitar with a plastic thumb pick and "bare" fingers. Jones plucked the strings with some force causing the strings to lift up and rebound against the fingerboard - accounting for the "spitting", slapping sound characteristic of Jones' guitar accompaniments. Another important feature was a regular percussive sound made by striking downwards with the middle and ring fingers of the right hand on damped bass strings close to or above the bridge of the guitar. This is akin to the technique used by banjo
players called frailing
. This can be heard to good effect on such Jones tracks as "Ten Thousand miles" (on The Noah's Ark Trap, 1977) and "Master Kilby" (on From the Devil to a Stranger, 1978). Jones also skillfully used selective string damping to achieve other percussive effects such as on "Billy Don't Weep For Me" (on From the Devil to a Stranger).
A feature of his later, mature guitar style is the introduction of subtle counterpoint lines that complement the lead vocals. This can be heard on such songs as "Miles Weatherhill", "The Golden Glove", "Courting is a pleasure" and others.
In 2001 Penguin Eggs was voted to 2nd place in the "Best Folk Album of all Time" by listeners of the Mike Harding
show on BBC Radio 2
. The opening track on this album, "Canadee-I-O" was also recorded by Bob Dylan
and included on his 1992 album Good as I Been to You
. Some critics have accused Dylan of stealing Jones' arrangements for this song without credit or offer of royalties. Others disagree, and believe the arrangements to be different. Another school of thought is that the arranger's copyright on recordings of traditional songs is little more than a legal fiction
, allowing artists to receive "mechanical royalty
payments" that would otherwise be kept by their recording labels. See the links below for further discussion on this issue.
Remastered live albums:
Jones also sang and played guitar and fiddle on recordings by many other folk artists.
In 1999, John Wesley Harding
released a tribute album entitled Trad Arr Jones.
Listen to Nic Jones' music:
Folk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...
, fingerstyle guitarist and fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
player whose professional career spanned the years 1964-1982. He recorded five solo albums, and was a frequent guest performer.
Biography
Nic Jones was born on 9 January 1947 in OrpingtonOrpington
Orpington is a suburban town and electoral ward in the London Borough of Bromley. It forms the southeastern edge of London's urban sprawl and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. He first learned to play guitar as a young teenager and early musical influences included such artists as The Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
, Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
, Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
, Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...
and Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
. His interest in folk music was aroused by some old school friends who had formed a folk band called The Halliard. When the members of the group decided to turn professional, one of them left to pursue a different career and Nic was invited to take his place. Whilst playing with The Halliard, Jones learned to play the fiddle, and also how to research and arrange traditional material. The group toured the UK between 1964 and 1968, eventually splitting up when two of the members decided to pursue careers outside the folk music business.
In 1968 Jones married Julia Seymour and they eventually were to have three children together – Daniel (d), Helen and Joe. The couple settled in Chelmsford
Chelmsford
Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...
and Jones decided to pursue a career as a solo folk artist. He started playing professional gigs in 1969, and in 1970 released his first album, Ballads and Songs
Ballads and Songs
-Track listing:#"Sir Patrick Spens" 3:53#"The Butcher and the Tailor's Wife" 1:51#"The Duke of Marlborough" 4:04#"Annan Water" 7:04#"The Noble Lord Hawkins" 2:12#"Don't You Be Foolish, Pray" 1:31#"The Outlandish Knight" 4:11#"Reynard the Fox" 2:17...
for Trailer Records. Between 1971 and 1980 Jones recorded four more solo albums - three more for Trailer Records and his last, "Penguin Eggs", for Topic
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.-History:...
. Apart from Jones' trademark vocals, fingerstyle guitar and fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, the records also introduced guest instrumentalists playing piano, harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
, bodhran
Bodhrán
The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...
, melodeon
Diatonic button accordion
A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys...
and recorders.
During his career, Jones was much in demand as a session musician and he guested on albums by leading UK artists such as June Tabor
June Tabor
June Tabor is an English folk singer.- Early years :June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I...
, Shirley Collins
Shirley Collins
Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE is a British folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s...
, Barbara Dickson
Barbara Dickson
Barbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...
, Richard Thompson and many others. He was also a member of short-lived folk group "Bandoggs", comprisng Jones, Tony Rose, Peter Coe and Chris Coe, and which released one album in 1978.
In February 1982 Jones was involved in a serious car accident while driving home after a gig at Glossop
Glossop
Glossop is a market town within the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, about east of the city of Manchester, west of the city of Sheffield. Glossop is situated near Derbyshire's county borders with Cheshire, Greater...
Folk Club. Jones' car ran into a lorry pulling out of "Whittlesea
Whittlesea
Whittlesea may mean:* Whittlesea, Victoria, a town some 40 km north of Melbourne.* City of Whittlesea, the local government area that contains it* Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, England used to be known as Whittlesea...
brickworks" on the road between Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
and March
March, Cambridgeshire
March is a Fenland market town and civil parish in the Isle of Ely area of Cambridgeshire, England. March was the county town of the Isle of Ely, a separate administrative county between 1889 and 1965, and is now the administrative centre of Fenland District Council.The town was an important...
in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
. He suffered very serious injuries, including many broken bones and brain damage, and required intensive care treatment and hospitalisation for a total of eight months. Jones's injuries left him with permanent physical co-ordination problems and unable to play the guitar as well as before – he could also no longer play the fiddle at all. The accident effectively ended his career as a touring and recording professional musician.
Jones now lives in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
and continues to play guitar and write songs for his own pleasure and enjoys playing chess. His wife Julia set up the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Mollie Music which has issued four albums of re-mastered live recordings from Jones's early career.
On 5 August 2010, after an absence of 28 years, Jones made a return to the stage. He appeared at an event dedicated to his music at Sidmouth Folk Week. Jones sang three songs with one of his former bands Bandoggs and commented that he would "consider performing again – but wanted to sing his own songs."
Guitar style
Jones developed an intricate, rhythmically-complex fingerpicking and strumming guitar style. He started off playing in standard guitar tuning (EADGBE) but then gravitated towards a variety of open tunings after hearing the recordings of Martin CarthyMartin Carthy
Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...
, whom he acknowledges as an important influence. These included tunings such as the well-known DADGAD
DADGAD
DADGAD, D modal tuning or Celtic tuning is an alternative guitar tuning most associated with Celtic music, though it has also found use in rock and other genres. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning, the six guitar strings are tuned, from low to high, DADGAD...
, but also variants of C and G major/minor/modal tunings heard on such tracks as "Canada-I-O
Canada-I-O
"O-Canada" is a traditional Canadian and English folk ballad. It is believed to have been written before 1839...
" and "Billy Don't Weep For Me". Jones was also influenced by classical and flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
guitar playing.
He played a Fylde
Fylde Guitars
Fylde Guitars is an English manufacturer of hand-made fretted musical instruments.The company was founded in 1973 by luthier Roger Bucknall, and remains under his personal control. Originally located in The Fylde, in 1996 the workshop moved to the Lake District, and is today located in Penrith,...
Oberon acoustic guitar with a plastic thumb pick and "bare" fingers. Jones plucked the strings with some force causing the strings to lift up and rebound against the fingerboard - accounting for the "spitting", slapping sound characteristic of Jones' guitar accompaniments. Another important feature was a regular percussive sound made by striking downwards with the middle and ring fingers of the right hand on damped bass strings close to or above the bridge of the guitar. This is akin to the technique used by banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
players called frailing
Clawhammer
Clawhammer is a highly rhythmic banjo playing style and common component of American old-time music. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direction...
. This can be heard to good effect on such Jones tracks as "Ten Thousand miles" (on The Noah's Ark Trap, 1977) and "Master Kilby" (on From the Devil to a Stranger, 1978). Jones also skillfully used selective string damping to achieve other percussive effects such as on "Billy Don't Weep For Me" (on From the Devil to a Stranger).
A feature of his later, mature guitar style is the introduction of subtle counterpoint lines that complement the lead vocals. This can be heard on such songs as "Miles Weatherhill", "The Golden Glove", "Courting is a pleasure" and others.
Discography
Jones' first four albums were originally released on vinyl on the Trailer Records label. Currently only the first two are available on CD. Legal wrangles continue to impede Jones' full back-catalogue from being re-released.In 2001 Penguin Eggs was voted to 2nd place in the "Best Folk Album of all Time" by listeners of the Mike Harding
Mike Harding
Mike Harding is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet and broadcaster. He is known as 'The Rochdale Cowboy' after one of his hit records...
show on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
. The opening track on this album, "Canadee-I-O" was also recorded by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and included on his 1992 album Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 28th studio album, released by Columbia Records in November 1992.It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964...
. Some critics have accused Dylan of stealing Jones' arrangements for this song without credit or offer of royalties. Others disagree, and believe the arrangements to be different. Another school of thought is that the arranger's copyright on recordings of traditional songs is little more than a legal fiction
Legal fiction
A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule which was not necessarily designed to be used in that way...
, allowing artists to receive "mechanical royalty
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
payments" that would otherwise be kept by their recording labels. See the links below for further discussion on this issue.
Solo
Studio albums:- Ballads and SongsBallads and Songs-Track listing:#"Sir Patrick Spens" 3:53#"The Butcher and the Tailor's Wife" 1:51#"The Duke of Marlborough" 4:04#"Annan Water" 7:04#"The Noble Lord Hawkins" 2:12#"Don't You Be Foolish, Pray" 1:31#"The Outlandish Knight" 4:11#"Reynard the Fox" 2:17...
(1970) - Nic JonesNic Jones (album)-Track listing:#"The Lass Of London City" 2:08#"Napoleon's Lamentation" 2:53#"The Bonny Bunch Of Roses" 6:05#"Edward" 3:29#"The Outlandish Knight" 3:35#"William And Nancy's Parting" 1:31#"Lord Bateman" 4:11#"Dance To Your Daddy" 2:17#"The Two Brothers" 3:52...
(1971) - The Noah's Ark TrapThe Noah's Ark Trap-Track listing:#"The Wanton Seed" 3:37#"Jackie Tar" 3:19#"Ten Thousand Miles" 3:22#"The Golden Glove" 5:51#"The Indian Lass" 5:56#"Miles Weatherhill" 3:17#"Reel" 2:39#"Isle of France" 5:17#"Crockery Ware" 5:15#"Annachie Gordon" 6:33...
(1977) - From the Devil to a StrangerFrom the Devil to a Stranger-Track listing:#"The Singer's Request" 2:34#"Some Say The Devil's Dead" 2:26#"Billy Don't You Weep For Me" 4:24#"William Glen" 5:50#"The Blind Harper" 4:10#"The Singer's Request" 0:43#"The Little Healthy Hill" 2:33#"Far From Home" 1:55#"Master Kilby" 3:53...
(1978) - Penguin EggsPenguin EggsPenguin Eggs is an album by Nic Jones, released in 1980. Allmusic described the album as "one of those rare records where not just every song, but each instrumental part is worth hearing"....
(1980)
Remastered live albums:
- In Search of Nic JonesIn Search of Nic JonesIn Search of Nic Jones is an album by Nic Jones, released in 1998. It is a collection of remastered live recordings, performed between 1979 and 1982. The album was voted Mojo's Folk Album of the Month, August 1998.-Track listing:...
(1998) - UnearthedUnearthed (Nic Jones album)Unearthed is a double album by Nic Jones, released in 2001. The album is a collection of remastered live material recorded before 1982.-Track listing:#"The Jukebox As She Turned" 2:39#"Bonny George Campbell" 2:29...
(2001) - Game Set Match (2006)
With The Halliard
- It's The Irish In Me - The Halliard (1967)
- The Halliard and Jon Raven (1967)
- Broadside Songs (2005 — the Halliard songs from and Jon Raven, plus 10 more)
- The Last Goodnight! (2005 — long-lost recording from 1968, plus 3 more)
With Maddy Prior and June Tabor
- Silly SistersSilly Sisters (album)Silly Sisters is a 1976 album by English folk singers Maddy Prior and June Tabor, their first collaborative effort as a duo. The pair later adopted the Silly Sisters name for subsequent projects.-Track listing:#"Doffin' Mistress"...
(1976)
Jones also sang and played guitar and fiddle on recordings by many other folk artists.
In 1999, John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding (singer)
Wesley Stace is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who goes by the stage name John Wesley Harding. He has called his style of music folk noir and gangsta folk...
released a tribute album entitled Trad Arr Jones.
External links
- Nic Jones (Official website)
- Nic Jones (Article by Mike Raven at folkmusic.net)
- Nic Jones Guitar Style (Article by Mike Raven at folkmusic.net)
- In search of Nic Jones (Article by Dave Emery at folkmusic.net)
- Nic Jones ("selected English foksingers")
- Discography (folkmonster.net)
- Discography
- Index of Nic Jones's Songs and Tunes
- Did Dylan steal Canadee-i-o?
Listen to Nic Jones' music:
- Nic Jones (Official "Myspace" site)
- Sir Patrick Spens
- The Bonny Bunch of Roses
- Wanton seed
- While The Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (with June TaborJune TaborJune Tabor is an English folk singer.- Early years :June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I...
) - Canadee-i-o
- Courting is a pleasure