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Author Archive: Chris Jones
Chris Jones wears many hats in his bluegrass career. In addition to leading his own band, with whom he tours and records, Jones is an award-winning broadcaster and songwriter.
Sure signs of the Mayan Apocalypse
As of the date of this column’s publication I calculate (with the clever use of the fingers of both of my hands) that there are only six more shopping days until Christmas. As if that weren’t enough pressure, if you believe this whole “Mayan Apocalypse” [...]
Must Apply In Person
Day jobs. For many musicians, these are the things that keep food (pizza) on the table and enable us to play a style of music that isn’t widely consumed by the mass market. Not everyone in the bluegrass music field needs one, but many have [...]
Christmas songs for bluegrass bands
‘Tis the season: a time when many bluegrass bands shut down or heavily curtail their touring and think more of family and home (for the bluegrass musicians who have homes). Still there’s some musical activity out there this time of the year: There’s the rare [...]
Bluegrass budgeting and goat’s milk
If this week’s column seems at all disjointed, it’s only because The Night Drivers and I are in the studio all this week, and I’m writing this in between takes of our new medley of Next Sunday Darling is My Birthday and One Night in [...]
Chris Jones – Reader Mail
It seems that I have again stirred up a firestorm of controversy with the last two or three columns about certain kinds of private engagements. I guess if I’m honest it’s more of a smoldering campfire of controversy than a firestorm, but we’ve just been [...]
ARU – Acronyms R Us
It occurred to me that while I was sounding off about types of gigs that bluegrass bands should avoid, I was perhaps giving the impression I was trying to exclude whole categories of work for a bluegrass band, with no exceptions. As many of us [...]
No go zones for bluegrass bands
After my recent column about bar gigs, I suggested that, though we all enjoy complaining about them, they’re still worthwhile venues for certain kinds of bands. But are there other kinds of gigs that bluegrass bands sometimes play that they really shouldn’t be playing? It [...]
Notes from the bar birds
I wasn’t really expecting this, but last week’s column about playing in bars prompted an unusual amount of emails and questions on the subject. I don’t pretend to be an expert, but having done my share of bar gigs in my life, I’ll do my [...]
Bar gigs… gotta love ‘em!
When road musicians get together, reminiscing about gigs past is a pretty typical sort of conversation. There can be fond memories of the festival with the extraordinary scenery, the theatre with the great sound and near-perfect acoustics, or maybe the private gig with the amazing [...]
Road games for bluegrass musicians
The road can be dreary. This fact struck a deep and resonant chord with me again recently while driving between West Memphis, Arkansas and Cape Girardeau, Missouri en route to a show in southern Illinois. The following description has many slight variations, and is often [...]
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