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Not to be confused with John Paul Jones
(even though our guy once released a self-titled LP on Columbia by that name) or JP Jones of
Chrissie Hynde and the Fairground Boys fame, our JP Jones is "America's hidden lion of independent music" (OpEdNews.com)
and Rhode Island’s original and most prolific indie recording artist.
Best known for his folk-influenced songwriting, Jones is a classically trained composer
who grew up on the rock and soul music of the 1960s. His recorded work has been compared
to giants like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan and contemporaries Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen
and Mark Knopfler. Hailed "one of the best American singer-songwriters" (Kevin McCarthy, Kevin's Celtic & Folk Music CD
Reviews) and "one of the best songwriters in the indie world" (Jan Best, Independent Songwriter Web Magazine),
for more than 20 years Jones has been the focal point of his one-artist label, Vision
Company Records, for which he’s released 12 CDs and published hundreds of songs.
As a performer, Jones has been at it more than 3 decades. He released a self-titled LP on
the Columbia/Windfall label in 1973 and did an arena tour at that time. Over the years
he's shared bills with a diverse and prominent musical cast that includes Springsteen,
Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat and Tim Hardin (just to name a few). Today he gigs mostly as a
solo performer playing house concerts, coffeehouses, outdoor festivals and the occasional
bar & grill. Affectionately dubbed an "obscure legend" by friends and
admirers, Jones has a following who regularly attend shows and fans who collect his
extensive CD catalog.
Jones was named after a great uncle and born in 1949 in the Wakefield, Rhode Island hospital
Dr. John Paul Jones founded. As a boy he tried and failed to learn the piano from teachers
in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Eventually he taught himself note by note
memorizing the soloist's part of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto. He graduated
from Wilbraham Academy
on scholarship and then went to Baptist Bible Seminary in Clarks Summit, PA. A
fundamentalist Christian education took, or didn't take, depending on your point of view,
and after three semesters he went on to Holyoke Community College, finally receiving a B.A. in
music composition from Amherst
College, again on scholarship. A self-described late-bloomer, he began writing songs
in his late teens, taught himself guitar by playing records at half speed, formed a band,
survived the break-up, and suddenly found himself with recording offers from Atlantic and
Columbia before he was out of school.
"To be alive is a great privilege. To be in a position to do the
work you love to do is nothing less than a state of grace," says Jones.
He should know.
JP recorded that first album for CBS'
Columbia/Windfall
label -- "A student work as far as I'm concerned" says Jones) -- at a time when
all the major labels were searching for male solo acts. The album was a commercial failure
and his career was caught in the crossfire as the relationship between Columbia and
Windfall became acrimonious and ended in lawsuit. "Bud Prager, owner along with Felix
Papalardi of Windfall Records [note: this
Wikipedia entry doesn't mention the John Paul Jones album or David Rae's
work, either], told me over the phone that nothing I subsequently wrote would be
produced," says Jones. "I was a 'talented' writer and should stay home and
pursue my 'talent'. Meanwhile they refused to release me from my contract asserting their
right of ownership of everything I did write for the term of the deal. I was
unable to write anything for the next five years. Fortunately on the day after the
contract expired I was able to write about 100 songs."
"I was 'managed' at the time by Dick
Sandhaus, a friend from Amherst College. Dick was already an established
producer of concert performances, especially at the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford. Dick and I had produced
John Paul Jones with little experience, but Dick had a close relationship with
Bud Prager and would eventually go on to work within Windfall. A little story: Dick and I
visited the CBS building in NYC to talk to a publicist and someone called a "project
manager" who's job was to oversee the commercial success of our deal. When we walked
into this fellow's office, he was listening to Foghat. He charmingly informed us
that the kind of music on John Paul Jones was not something he was particularly
interested in and that we were essentially on our own in terms of promoting the record.
Walking out of that office, I turned to Dick and said, "We've got to lose this
guy." Nothing changed.
"But Dick did manage a brief
East coast radio interview tour, which also led us down a deserted alley. When
"On the Road"
came up for release as a single (it was actually making a little noise in Europe), Dick
informed me that because of the legal hassle between Windfall and CBS, if we forced the
release of the song as a single according to our contract (we had already gone back to the
studio for a radio re-mix), the powers to be would 'see to it that it died.'" No
action on my behalf was taken. While talking sympathetically about my position, Dick's
relationship with Windfall was becoming a little too cozy for my interest. He went
on to work for Windfall, produced an album for the all-female band Deadly
Nightshade, and eventually started his own company, Science Faction, which produced
Laser light shows for Kiss and the like. As it became evident to both of us that
commercial success was not in our immediate future, we parted ways. My
'track record' had sealed my fate."
Anyone familiar with the inner
workings of the music business will find all of this all too familiar. It's included
here, because why not? "I don't mean to give the impression that the music
business was or is any more cut-throat or insensistive than other industry, " says
Jones. "The fact is that I am grateful to virtually everyone I've worked with
along the way. Brooks
Arthur's passing along a set of Bessie Smith LP's is one example of spontaneous
kindness I have received. Dick Sandhaus was my friend and without his efforts, I
don't know what would have become of my musical ambitions. He did get me
that first contract with CBS/Windfall, as well as an offer from a subsidiary of Atlantic
records."
Cut adrift in the late 70's, Jones pursued a second major label deal by submitting demo
tapes and playing New York City showcase gigs at clubs like Folk City and CBGBs. It was
during this time that he caught the eye of producers John
Hammond Sr. (Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan) and Ed Freeman (Tim Hardin, Don McLean). Hammond visited Jones at home and offered to take
him into the studio. Freeman and Jones collaborated on an additional set of demos. Neither
relationship produced a second album.
By the early 1980s it was clear to Jones that his future in
music would be as an independent recording artist. He fronted the New York City based
folk/rock band John Train (who took their name in tribute to the Phil Ochs
pseudonym) and released and promoted two independently produced 45 rpm singles.
John Train, 1980
Photo Credit: Jeff Burk
Over the next decade he supported
himself by taking a day job as a commercial artist while continuing to write songs and
doing open mic solo gigs at clubs he'd headlined just a few years before.
Everything changed in the 1990s. Jones moved back to New England and in a series of small
steps began to reconnect as a performer with the local folk circuit. He took coffeehouse
gigs and had live performances featured on compilation CDs in support of such non-profit
projects as the WWUH Folk Next Door fund-raisers, the Rhode Island Songwriters
Association's 12 Steps of Christmas and the Hope Center of Providence's Our
Invincible Summer. Digital technology brought down the cost of recording and
duplicating, and made making high quality records easy and relatively affordable. Jones
dug in.
What's followed is a remarkable twelve disc -- and growing -- musical legacy. Working at
home with a PARIS (think Protools, but different) digital audio workstation, Jones now
acts as his own engineer and has recorded several solo acoustic albums at home. He's also
used the system to record overdubs on the "more produced" studio tracks and done
the final mixes for the last eight CDs on PARIS. Other Jones' PARIS recording credits
include Les Sampou's
2001 critically acclaimed solo acoustic Borrowed and Blue release. "The
purpose of production is to make itself invisible," says Jones. "What the
listener should hear is the song -- the vocals, the melody, lyrics and musical
themes."
After 12 CD releases, much of Jones' extensive back catalog of songs remains unrecorded --
and he keeps writing. Happiest when he's working on a new project, the cornerstone of
Jones restless spiritual searching and artistic ambition appears to culminate with each
new release. 2006's Magical Thinking is his latest. Ten months in the making it's
an eclectic, fine and fully-realized disc from a great songwriter.
Discography:
John Paul Jones LP Columbia/Windfall 1973
"Johnny Go Lightly" b/w "It'll All Blow Over" 7" single Strider
Records 1980
"Don't Feel Guilty" b/w "Wendy" 12" single Self Released 1982
Voluntown CD Vision Company 1991
Broken Open CD Vision Company 1994
Bard CD Vision Company 1997
Angels on the Road CD Vision Company 1998
Broken Open - Reissue CD Vision Company 1999
Ashes CD Vision Company 1999
Back to Jerusalem CD Vision Company 2000
Salvation Street CD Vision Company 2001
Life and Death CD Vision Company 2003
Jeremiah CD Vision Company 2004
Thugs and Lovers CD Vision Company 2005
Magical Thinking CD Vision Company 2006
Revelation CD Vision Company Records 2010
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