OUT OF THE BLUES

Mel Jones, winner of the Charlotte Blues Society’s 2005 “Acoustic Blues Challenge,” talks with Elizabeth Carlson, founder of Carolina Music Ways Music Heritage Resource Group.

Tell us about the kind of blues you perform.                

My band, Mel Jones and his Bag O’ Bones, are doing a combination of the country blues, the Piedmont blues, some R&B, some bluegrass tinged stuff, and some old-time tinged stuff. It’s not a traditional band by any means… I started as an R&B guy, many years ago, as a drummer and a singer [during] my formative years in Chapel Hill… I did that for a number of years, and played electric music all over... Then, when I moved to Davie County, I learned about the wonderful acoustic music that was going on in this part of the world... primarily bluegrass and old-time.

In Davie County, I was exposed to this great bunch of friends that went every year to the Old Time Fiddler’s & Bluegrass Festival at Union Grove. Being a drummer, I naturally didn’t have an instrument. It was such a wonderful thing for these people to just take these instruments and just wander around amongst each other and jam at will. I thought, “God, what a wonderful talent to have; what an amazing freedom it must be to go from campsite to campsite.” I became determined to do some singing with that music and to do it with an instrument that was melodic in some way. The harmonica was my choice.

How did you move from the bluegrass/old-time scene at the fiddlers conventions to acoustic country blues?                

I found that blues was so integral to [bluegrass and old-time], and the reason I found that out was that I was coming from a [rhythm &] blues background, and it wasn’t hard at all to figure out that, well, a break goes here, and the chorus goes here, and the lead here. Everything was in the same place as it was in blues… Blues is, in my view, the most influential form of music because elements of it are found in every American kind of music—pop music, classical music, jazz, rock & roll, country, and bluegrass and old-time. Look at every type of music and the word “blues” is in countless titles of all these songs.

What about as a kid in Chapel Hill, did you ever hear country blues there?                

I had some direct [blues influences.] My grandfather used to keep me when I was probably four or five years old, while my mother worked. He lived on McCauley St., right there at the edge of the black section of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

     What my grandfather did every day after feeding me lunch was walk me up the hill to McCauley St…then all the way back down to the power plant and the little store there, and buy me some ice cream. The old black guy that ran the store found out that my grandfather was a retired preacher. The old black guy used to play the guitar and sing pretty much the old black gospel stuff in that folk style. My grandfather got to where he really liked to hear him sing, so this became a daily tradition.

Was the African American store owner playing Piedmont blues, Delta blues, holy blues?                

I do remember that the fellow strummed, he did not finger play, but he was in the same neighborhood as one of the great finger players in country blues, Elizabeth Cotton.

     It’s interesting because [last fall] we played the Carrboro Music Festival and our stage where we played was within 300 yards of where Elizabeth Cotton actually grew up… Elizabeth was there right in that same time and neighborhood with this old guy, and he was playing a different style from her. There was even variety within the styles.

     [The store owner] was very much a gospel blues guy, but you know the tradition seems to be that most of these guys played blues when they were young, and when they got older morphed into gospel guys. The Reverend Gary Davis is a good example, one of my great heroes... He played the tobacco circuit and was just one of the best that ever was.

Did the Reverend Gary Davis play at tobacco auction time in the 1920s and 30s on Trade St. in downtown Winston-Salem?                

Definitely, there are records of him being through here and over at Durham, Danville, all the big markets, he was there. He lived in Durham for a good while and played out of there because it was a central location. But you know the history of these guys, their actual whereabouts and their paths were pretty sketchy because their movements were not well documented. There wasn’t a Rolling Stone writing about the acoustic blues guys back in the ‘20s and ‘30s, so a lot of what went on we kind of have to piece together.

What attracts you emotionally to the blues?                

I think the blues is the most honest of music. I think emotionally it’s the most direct, and I’ve always been a big fan of the emotions of music… I think in my emotions, there is a fairly high energy there. I like to work my energy things out in performance. The blues is the best platform for that for me. It’s the most real of music in my view. It describes the human condition better than about any other music can, both musically and lyrically.

Tell us about your CDs and where people can buy them.                

I have four CDs: “When the Alligators Come to Town,” “Blues from the Porch,” which I made with Danny Wicker, my great friend and incredibly gifted finger-style guitar player. “Bones To Pick,” and “Living Bones.” And we’re fixing to make a new one. Our CDs are for sale at our live performances and at our Web site www.BonesBlues.com.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?                

I would love to say that I am very proud of what you guys do. I think Carolina Music Ways is a really nicely conceived and executed effort. We musicians labor out there in the lonely recesses. North Carolina is a not an easy place to play music. It’s nice to know there are people out there that care about the music and about the musicians enough to do what you guys do.

For more information about Mel Jones, visit www.BonesBlues.com. To learn more about traditional music performers, events and venues of Winston-Salem and the Northwest Piedmont, visit www.CarolinaMusicWays.org. The Carolina Music Ways Web site is a comprehensive resource on the music heritage and living music traditions of the region.