Michael Franklin: A Conversation with David Lynn Jones

David Lynn Jones
Photo by Illa Jones

I've blogged about the great country musician and songwriter David Lynn Jones over the years, so I couldn't pass up the chance to post an entry concerning Michael Franklin's interview with the man, "A Conversation with David Lynn Jones," on his website Pointless Endeavor (September 13, 2013).

"Who's this guy Franklin," you ask. I don't know, but he seems to know who he is:

Michael Franklin is the Media and Reserves Specialist at Western Kentucky University's Visual and Performing Arts Library (VPAL). Michael is also a professional musician and sound engineer. He is currently recording his 6th CD with his best friends Screenlast 6.0 and Audacity Sourceforge. He thinks Iggy Pop is the greatest singer in the history of music. If you disagree, you're wrong. You better ask somebody.

Iggy Pop? Well . . . he thinks Jones is great, so he must be right about Iggy. Here's what he says about Jones:

If there were any justice in the universe, David Lynn Jones would be a household name. He would sell records like Neopolitan ice cream and be considered the natural heir to Bruce Springsteen, Arkansas-division. Because he's that good.

That's right! The interview can't prove this, of course; only the music can to that. But the interview is good, too, and demonstrates how sharp Jones is.

The conversation is a long one, touching upon Jones's life and music, and since I grew up in his neck of the woods, I'll just concentrate on some local anecdotes Jones tells and leave the music to be discovered on its own. Here's Jones describing a local scene:

There's a little café in Arkansas that says 'At The Crossroads'. It's the only crossroads, a paved road for miles in any direction. And that was where I went to school. And Bexar, where my studio was and where I was born and raised -- and where all of our family lives -- down one of those crossroads, there's a little cabin there and there always has been a café there. You know, a Dairy Queen. Not the trade Dairy Queen, but a little place to get ice cream cones and that kind of thing from when I was a kid. And over the years, it has become the gathering place for the morning café coffee drinkers club, you know? It was the place where everybody, all the old men whittling and spitting, was all in there all drinking coffee all the time. All the time. Some of them were in there three or four times a day. And when I came back from Texas . . . I’d been gone for a long time, so I'm a new guy. I'm basically a city guy at that point. I'm as country as anybody in the world, but I'd been on the road and living in Houston, Texas and living in other places for years and years. So when I came back, I had a publishing deal -- finally -- where I could just live anywhere I wanted to and write. So I came home, you know? I bought my grandmother's farm and moved into a house where I'd been as a kid. So anyway, I had this blank page in front of me, you know? It was a great creative time in my life and I'd go to the café of the morning and sit around and listen to all these guys. I knew most of them. I had known 'em from when I was in school there. Nobody really knew what I had going on. I had a big publishing deal happening and all kinds of stuff going on and was running with Charlie Daniels and…just had a lot of stuff going on. I moved back home and nobody knew, so I could just sit over there in the corner and watch all this stuff happening. It was like a little soap opera that played out there, a different version tomorrow than you hear today. And so it's about characters that go in there.

There was a lady who was the waitress -- she's the 'world's greatest food waitress' -- and her name was Vernelle. And so I changed her name to Willie in the song, because that's what some people called her. She was the greatest waitress. She was like the gal that used to be at the truck stop, whatever her name was [Flo, from Alice]. She was like that. She knew everybody, everybody loved her, she never wrote anything down, she never made a mistake. If you ordered one over easy and one sunny side up the morning before, she remembered it the next day. Even if she'd never seen you. And she was beautiful, too. She was a middle-aged movie star looking lady. And she was just a wonderful, wonderful person. And she spent all of her money feeding stray cats. She fed -- it says in the song -- a hundred stray cats. She actually fed more like 150 in a big lot behind her house. And she spent all the money she made as a waitress. I mean, you can imagine feeding that many cats cat food . . . she fed 'em scraps from the café, of course. Some of those cats ate better than people. But she spent all of her money feeding those cats and everybody was always joking about her cats, and how many cats she had now. And it just kind of developed out of that.

And the waitress 'hot-headed Brenda', she'd been through a divorce. She was married to a friend of mine. I was sitting in there one morning with who became my father-in-law, and he'd ordered toast with his breakfast. This actually took place at a restaurant across the street, this particular incident. But later, she worked in the Crossroads In I'm talking about. Anyway, my father-in-law ordered his toast [and] she didn't bring it to him. She went back in the kitchen and came out with two pieces of burned toast and just slid 'em across the table to him. And it was wheat toast. He hated wheat toast. Anyway, that's where that piece of the story came from. It was an actual event. Because of her divorce, she was mad at everybody. Hot-headed Brenda, she had a really bad temper and she was mad all the time.

And Rockin' Johnny was my cousin. He was the consummate lazy hillbilly, asleep on the front of the store with a hat down over his eyes. That's the way he lived. He never learned to drive. He wouldn't turn on a light switch because he was afraid of electricity. And he fox hunted. He carried a fox horn around, strung over his shoulder until he was past 80. And he'd come in the café and sit on the floor and talk and talk and talk and nobody would listen to him. But he was saying some fairly worthwhile stuff sometimes. But nobody ever paid any attention to Johnny. His name was Johnny Dillinger. My family on my mother's side were Dillingers, as in . . . John Dillinger. Same people. And Johnny was more than likely named after John Dillinger. Anyway, that's the story of that song . . . . Of course, he had no idea that he was even in my song. He was so out-of-touch with stuff like [that], it wouldn't have meant anything to him. He didn't listen to music -- he didn't care anything about music. He just liked fox hounds and Prince Albert smoking tobacco. And he walked everywhere he went. You could give him a ride, but he never owned a car, couldn't drive . . . . Smoked continually. He rolled his own cigarettes and could roll 'em with one hand. He'd talk to you, making motions with one hand and roll a cigarette with the other.

I knew these people, not nearly so well as Jones did, but I was aware of them. As I told Mr. Franklin in a comment:

Great interview! I grew up in David's neighborhood of the Ozarks, though he was seven years older. One of his uncles was Archie Dillinger, and Archie -- probably Johnny's cousin -- was my step-grandpa, so I grew up knowing of David, and I knew he was smart, but I didn't know he was that smart. Reading your interview gave me insight into how articulate he is. I'm a writer, and I wish I could talk about writing the way David can talk about music! I'll be blogging on this interview!

And here I am, blogging about it, but I've quoted enough and said enough. I'll leave the rest of the interview to all of you to read . . .

David Lynn Jones and a Few Other Old Hillbillies Singing Recently

David Lynn Jones
Benefit Concert
Highland, Arkansas
You Tube

I haven't posted for a while on David Lynn Jones because I've been waiting for his comeback album, but one of this blog's readers who also listens to David Lynn, a Canadian man by the name of Larry Saidman, recently notified me of a benefit concert that David Lynn played in not long ago at a place just down the road from my Ozark hometown of Salem, Arkansas, namely, in Highland, Arkansas, which is also just up the hill from David Lynn's current home in the Spring River valley town of Hardy, Arkansas:

I just found two new postings of David Lynn Jones on You Tube. both from Jan 11, 2012, a "Benefit in Highland Ark". One song is "Amazing Grace" with other performers also singing. The other is a song I've never head before . . . title is probably "Every Once In A While".

That old favorite Amazing Grace is a lot fun to watch, for some of the performers take turns singing, and I liked that video better at first, but the other one grows on a fellow with the watching. Here is my transcription of the lyrics to Every Once in a While:

Every once in a while,
When reminded of you,
I could not see the sky,
I'm reminded your eyes
Are the same shade.
So I never look up,
Well, that's not exactly true,
Every once in a while,
I still do.

Every once in a while,
When my time is good,
I might be passing by,
Just happen to drive
Through our old hood.
I never go by your house,
Well, that's not exactly true,
Every once in a while,
I still do.

When the wind blows
Or the sun shows
A shadow on the ground,
When the birds sing
Or the night brings
Your old memory around,
I must be getting better,
I hardly ever think of you,
But every once in a while,
I still do.

Every once in a while,
When the moon is just right,
I promised myself
If somebody else
Is holding you tight,
That I'd never feel like a fool,
Well, that's not exactly true,
Every once in a while,
I still do.

When the wind blows
Or the sun shows
A shadow on the ground,
When the birds sing
Or the night brings
Your old memory around,
I must be getting better,
I hardly ever think of you,
But every once in a while,
I still do

Yes, every once in a while,
I still do . . .

I know some of those lines aren't right, so if some youngster with better ears than mine can listen and offer corrections, I'll be much obliged and do the same for you when my ears get younger again.

Meanwhile, I'll keep waiting for David Lynn's comeback album, which ought to arrive sometime before the parousia . . .

David Lynn Jones 'Sighting'

One of my friends from high school was Ron Irby. His roots were from my part of the Ozarks, but he grew up for some of his youth in Indiana before his family returned to the Ozarks. He and I used to ride around in his car on Fulton County's unpaved back roads, discussing Bob Dylan's songs and what that singer's obscure lyrics meant. I don't recall if we ever figured them out, but even if the philosophical implications had been resolved, little would have been achieved, as Wittgenstein might say.

Anyway -- to make a long story short -- Ron's older brother Richard has finally also moved into the Ozarks, sometime in the past few years, and writes for the local Area Wide News and possibly other media. Yesterday, he sent me notice of a performance by David Lynn Jones, among other musicians. I was glad to hear this, for Jones had been in poor physical health for a while and depressed over problems caused by a criminal who'd somehow stolen Jone's identity -- and was thus not making much music. But all that seems to be behind him now, for Richard writes:

I'm enclosing a story and some photos regarding a major David Lynn Jones "sighting". He seemed in good physical and mental state and ready to rock. The good news is, Ron Helm and Jerry Bone are working with Lynn on a comeback album.

Bone had mentioned this to me some time back, and I believe that I passed it along as a rumor since I wasn't sure that I should announce it as fact, but Richard says to go ahead now. Here, also, are the three photos, the first showing Jones in center stage, with a lanky Jerry Bone in the background:


I don't recognize the big man in the baseball cap. The next photo again put Jones center stage, with Bone in the background again, the top of his head just visible:


Here's the third photograph, with Jones again center stage, but all the other musicians are equally visible:


I recognize Bone, of course, but not the others. Perhaps some knowledgeable Fulton County local could take the trouble to name them all?

Anyway, Jones was taking part in a memorial service for Gene Cooper, a local musician from Oxford, Arkansas, a small town some 13 miles south of my hometown, Salem. Richard sent a column -- "Fans, Friends and Musicians Remember Gene Cooper" -- that he'd written for some local publication, perhaps the aforementioned Area Wide News, but he didn't directly say. Here's what Richard related about Jones:

[Also present was] David Lynn Jones, a Fulton County native who hit the big time in the 80's as a songwriter and performer. An energized Jones showed he was ready for a comeback, after years out of the spotlight.

"This isn't about us," said Jones from the stage. "This is about Gene Cooper. I love this man as much as one can love another."

Jones recounted how Cooper hired him as his guitarist at age 18.

"He is the reason I got into this business," said Jones. "He gave me a job and I made some money. Sometimes. No matter how little I made, Gene probably took less because he always had a big heart."

I remember Gene Cooper. He used to play music over at Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas, another small town nearby, about 14 miles to the east of Salem, my hometown. I didn't know the man personally, nor did he know me -- we were of different generations -- but I might as well also say good bye:

"Good bye, Gene."

And, thanks again to Gene, though now in his passing, we once more have Jones . . .

David Lynn Jones: "Lonely Town"

"Lonely Town"

David Lynn Jones

(Image from You Tube)

Recently, the musician Jamie Denton left a message in a comment to one of my posts on David Lynn Jones, informing readers of a few new videos with Jones playing:

Jamie Denton here again. For all of you Facebookers out there Jerry Bone has been posting some really nice stuff that includes David Lynn Jones songs and a recent video of David Lynn Jones sitting in with Jerry's band! These are a must see and listen if you are a fan! I've posted some of them on my Facebook page. You can find my page under James Denton instead of Jamie. I'm easy to find. I'm holding a left handed stratocaster in my hands. And I'm pretty sure my page isn't private. Thought y'all might enjoy the info.

I promised to alert readers to this, but Jamie didn't offer any links, and I couldn't find the videos. Readers are welcome to try. Here's Denton's Facebook site. And here's the Facebook site for Jerry Bone. Bone also has a My Space homepage.

If any readers have more luck than I, share it with the rest of us. Meanwhile, I've linked to an old David Lynn Jones number, a jazzed-up, saxy country tune from Wood, Wind and Stone (1990), Lonely Town, and I've typed the lyrics below. If readers notice any mistakes in my transcription, let me know, and I'll correct the errors:

Lonely Town

Well, it's another hot night down on lonely street,
where those jaded hearts are pounding to the only beat
they know
dancing slow

That old jukebox is singing for its nickles and dimes.
I said, "Play that sad one one more time."
It played, "Misery Loves Company"

That old neon Romeo is out on the floor,
dancing with a girl that's heard it all before,
but she don't mind --
she knows true love is hard to find.

Down in lonely town.
Down in lonely town.
Down in lonely town where the broken-hearted come to
cry for each other,
try to find that old feeling again
with some brand-new lover.

Well, there's a lady in a corner at a table for two.
An old Black Label will help her make it through
the night,
just another night.

So, I made my request in my best barroom charm.
She said, "I guess one dance wouldn't do me no harm."
We was both wondering
if she'd be lying in my arms in the morning.

But there's a good woman waiting for me at home.
She sits by the window, stares at the phone.
She knows all about being alone.

Down in lonely town.
Down in lonely town.
Down in lonely town, where the broken-hearted come to
cry for each other,
try to find that old feeling again
with some brand-new lover

Down in lonely town.
Oh, if you're looking for me,
you can find me in lonely town.
You know where I'll be.
You can find me in lonely town.
Oh, if you're looking for me,
you can find me in lonely town.
You know where I'll be.
You can find me in lonely town.
Down in lonely town.

Jones has the Ozarks in his voice and a country beat to the song, but a jazzy quality to the music, courtesy of the saxophone, I reckon. The song itself is probably about some West Plains barroom that had a jukebox with Porter Waggoner's "Misery Loves Company," because that's the sort of place in Missouri that we headed for to get out of our dry Northern Arkansas counties and enjoy some good whiskey to sip on, some slow music to dance to, and some fast women to dance with. None of these details matter to the song, of course, which stands on its own.

And I understand that Jones is working on some music these days, but I still don't know when it's going to be produced and on the market for his fans . . .

David Lynn Jones: "Livin' in the Promised Land"

David Lynn Jones

Gradually Regaining His Focus

"Livin' in the Promised Land"

(Image from You Tube)

Some readers will recall that I announced an upcoming performance by David Lynn Jones in West Plains, Missouri scheduled for last June 13th, 2009 at a memorial concert organized by Jamie Denton in honor of the recently deceased but renowned blues harmonica player Mark Sallings. Well, as I noted, the performance took place, and somebody video-taped part of it and posted a clip of David Lynn Jones to You Tube.

David Lynn sang three songs, finishing up with a request that he sing "Livin' in the Promised Land," which he did even though he said that he doesn't usually do this on guitar -- to my surprise! -- and he began somewhat roughly, searching for the right note with his voice but finding it and growing in strength as he sang:

Livin' in the Promise Land

Give us your tired and weak
And we will make them strong
Bring us your foreign songs
And we will sing along
Leave us your broken dreams
We'll give them time to mend
There's still a lot of love
Livin' in the Promised Land

Livin' in the Promised Land
Our dreams are made of steel
The prayer of every man
Is to know how freedom realy feels
There is a winding road
Across the shifting sand
Still room for everyone
Livin' in the Promised Land

So we came from the distant isles
Nameless woman, faithless child
Like a bad dream
Till there was no room at all
No place to run, and no place to fall
Give us your daily bread
We have no shoes to wear
No place to call our home
Only this cross to bear
We are the multitudes
Lord, lend us a helping hand
Is there no love anymore
Livin' in the Promised Land

Livin' in the Promised Land
Our dreams are made of steel
The prayer of every man
Is to know how freedom really feels
There is a winding road
Across the shifting sand
Still room for everyone
Livin' in the Promised Land
Livin' in the Promised Land

The man ended powerfully. I then discovered some other recently posted video clips of David Lynn Jones on You Tube, such as "Bonnie Jean" and "Tonight in America."

And as long as we're on a country kick, let's listen to the Osborne Brothers good old "Rocky Top," which I loved as a kid. And even -- to many folks' great astonishment -- that excellent instrumental, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," played by (among others) Earl Scruggs and Steve Martin.

Yes, Steve Martin, who has perfected the clawhammer technique of banjo playing. Listen to him on the medly "Loch Lomond . . . Sally Anne."

David Lynn Jones: Snapshot from 1988

Washington Post Logo

(Image from Washington Post)

I sent an old Baylor friend the link to my most recent blog entry on David Lynn Jones, and she thought that she recalled having "read an article in the Washington Post a year or two back on David Lynn Jones" that referred to his turn-around.

I was skeptical about that and suspected that she might have confused David Lynn Jones with some other country musician named "Jones," but I took the opportunity to search the Washington Post archives and thus happened across an old article from May 27, 1988 by Mike Joyce, "David Lynn Jones, Riding High," that offers a snapshot of David Lynn at a crucial moment in his career not long after his number one hit for Willie Nelson, "Living in the Promise Land," and at a time when he was trying to reach a larger audience for his own albums.

Apparently, he had recently played at the well-known music club "The Birchmere," which has launched many a music career, and Joyce begins by citing a humorous opening remark by David Lynn:

"You better be nice because we outnumber you," country-rocker David Lynn Jones told the audience at the Birchmere Wednesday night.

Nice line, for the audience was rather smaller than the capacity 500 seats, but David Lynn performed his best anyway:

Actually, the crowd was about five times the size of his eight-piece band, but Jones played flat-out anyway, turning in one of the most impressive shows staged at the club in recent memory.

Joyce goes on to say some things about David Lynn's voice and music:

Raised in Arkansas, Jones has a powerful, grainy voice that occasionally brings Guy Clark to mind, and one of his best known songs, "High Ridin' Heroes," bears a strong resemblance to Clark's "L.A. Freeway."

But that's all that the internet combined with the Washington Post archives offered minus a subscription or purchase. I'm curious what Joyce had to say about David Lynn in the other 60 to 70 remaining words, but perhaps some fan can provide the rest.

Meanwhile, it gives us something to reflect upon . . . maybe about life's opportunities that sometimes don't take us where we expect to find ourselves, but also -- given some more recent developments in David Lynn's life -- something about second chances.

UPDATE: John B has graciously provided the remainder of Mike Joyce's review:

Raised in Arkansas, Jones has a powerful, grainy voice that occasionally brings Guy Clark to mind, and one of his best known songs, "High Ridin' Heroes," bears a strong resemblance to Clark's "L.A. Freeway." But just as Clark's influence seemed obvious one moment, it vanished the next, as Jones and his band tore into some galloping, visceral rock tunes, including a couple of songs from an upcoming album. As rousing as these performances were, though, nearly every tune expressed a personal and often sobering viewpoint.

Local singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Allen opened with a genial and crisply performed set of original material, rounded out by a couple of choice cover tunes.

Thank you John B.! David Lynn Jones fans owe you one. Have a beer on me sometime when you're in the neighborhood.

David Lynn Jones: June 13th Performance in West Plains

David Lynn Jones

and

Illa Jones

Not from the concert.

(Image from Lady Jamie's My Space)

You see above one of the most recent photographs of David Lynn Jones, which I've borrowed from the website of a certain "Jamie," a lady who lives in Spring Lake, Arkansas . . . which I assume is not far from Cave City, Arkansas, where David Lynn currently lives. I hope that she doesn't mind my borrowing this photo, for it's 'stolen' in a good cause. Kind of like Robin Hood . . .

I suppose that the image itself ain't 'zackly politically correct, what with David Lynn smoking a cancer stick, but it's real, and the man is back. Yes, back . . . or at least on his long-delayed comeback. Here's what was posted about one month ago by a different "Jamie," a fellow in West Plains, Missouri by the name of "Jamie Denton" (cf. My Space link with loud country music):

Hi, my name's Jamie and I'm putting on a benefit concert for the late Mark Sallings, who was a member of David Lynn's band, and David Lynn Jones is scheduled to appear on June 13th (a Saturday night) at the avenue theatre in West Plains MO. Tickets go on sale June the 1st at 10 a.m. at West Plains Music Store, and range from 10.00 to 25.00. We would love to have all of Lynn's fans out to see him.

The concert for Mark Sallings mentioned in the above comment will be June 13th 2009, at the Avenue Theatre in West Plains, MO. I just wanted to confirm this is a 2009 date!

I checked this out with Jerry Bone (link with softer, blues-style music), who knew of the event but couldn't with certainty confirm it, so I asked around but couldn't get any firm information. Nevertheless, the concert did take place, as I have just yesterday learned, and David Lynn Jones did in fact appear, as Jamie Denton has now confirmed:

Hi, this is Jamie Denton once again, and I wanted everyone to know that David Lynn Jones did perform in West Plains on the 13th, and his set was awsome. He did 3 songs -- 2 new ones, and "Living in the Promiseland" -- I hope some of your readers made it to the show. It was a real treat to hear Jones singing again!

I imagine that it was a treat. I don't know that any of my regular readers made the concert, but I am happy to receive any and all reports on the performance. I'm gratified to hear that David Lynn not only sang his number 1 song from the late 80s but also performed two new ones!

I hope that a tape has been made and will be cleared to listen to on You Tube or on David Lynn's My Space site. Meanwhile, here are some links to remind us of why we love David Lynn's voice and songs:

High Ridin' Heros

When Times Were Good and You Were Mine

Bonnie Jean (Little Sister)

Here in My Heart

That last link, David Lynn's My Space site, includes a message from Craig, a fellow musician who seems to have been at the West Plains concert, for he says, in a message dated June 15th, 2009 (3:14 a.m.), "Great set last night. Enjoyed visiting with you." I infer that Craig was referring to the June 13th concert in mentioning "last night" even though he happened to be posting at a point when June 14th had stretched into June 15th. At any rate, that bit by Craig about David Lynn's "Great set" sounds good -- and probably refers to "Living in the Promiseland" along with the two new songs that Jamie mentioned. I expect that we'll soon be hearing more from David Lynn.

In the meantime, here are a couple more reports about the West Plains concert that have posted while I was writing this blog entry. Jamie Denton writes again to tell us:

I'm sure there will be a follow up with some of the local newspapers! And Dennis Crider, former West Plains Quill photographer took pics of all the artists, so I'll keep you informed, when these come available. As for a recording, we weren't able to get that all set up, but who knows -- someone may have snuck in a recorder. They always do! So I'd keep my eyes open for that too just in case!

And an anonymous comment comes from one who attended the concert and seems to know David Lynn quite well:

I attended the concert in West Plains, Mo. Saturday evening and agree with Jamie that David Lynn had a tremendous performance. I told him that it may have been the best that I had heard him sing. He was extremely gratified with the great reception and response he received. The quality of the sound with his acoustic style revealed the vintage David Lynn. I updated him on the great following and support he has received on Gypsy Scholar. You can expect to hear more from David Lynn in the future as he makes a few changes.

More people seem to be reading this blog than I had realized. I'm glad that it has provided a forum for various people who appreciate the music of David Lynn Jones. From my site meter, I've not only seen folks from Canada and Australia logging on to one or another of my blog entries on Jones, I've even seen someone from Russia searching for a Jones CD and ending up here . . . though not leaving a message.

I'd therefore suggest that David Lynn Jones still has a sizeable fan base waiting for him to return.

David Lynn Jones to play in West Plains on June 13, 2009?

David Lynn Jones

- First from Right -
2006 Americana Music Conference and Awards
Wayne, Chip Taylor, Steve Popovich, Steve Popovich, Jr., and David Lynn Jones
- From Left to Right -
(Image by Michael Buffalo Smith)

I'm re-using this photograph of David Lynn Jones from 2006 . . . although I have found two more recent images on a MySpace site hosted by a lady named "Jamie" who lives in Spring Lake, Arkansas. I learned of this site from another lady, "Di," who also has a MySpace site and lives in Clarksburg, Tennessee.

Both Jamie and Di are David Lynn Jones fans, and I reckon that I am, too, even though I possess only one CD, a bootleg copy of a gospel tape that Jones made back around 1999 in his Bexar studio but never produced. I came into possession of this CD because my nephew was dating Jones's daughter a couple of years later and . . . well, the story gets complicated. The shortest story is that I grew up in Jones's part of the Ozarks and have some personal connections through family and friends.

For the benefit of those who run across this blog entry but don't know who Jones is or why I'm talking about him (or who don't know who I am either), just do a search on this blog for "David Lynn Jones," and you'll find out about him (and about me). You can also listen to Jones singing "Here In My Heart" at his own MySpace account, or go to You Tube and enjoy "High Riding Heros," "When Times Were Good and You Were Mine," and "Bonnie Jean (Little Sister)."

Now for the more recent news. A man named "Jamie Denton," who lives in West Plains, Missouri and also has a My Space site, has left a couple of comments on one of my blog entries on David Lynn Jones and tells us the following:

Hi, my name's Jamie and I'm putting on a benefit concert for the late Mark Sallings, who was a member of David Lynn's band, and David Lynn Jones is scheduled to appear on June 13th (a Saturday night) at the avenue theatre in West Plains MO. Tickets go on sale June the 1st at 10 a.m. at West Plains Music Store, and range from 10.00 to 25.00. We would love to have all of Lynn's fans out to see him.

The concert for Mark Sallings mentioned in the above comment will be June 13th 2009, at the Avenue Theatre in West Plains, MO. I just wanted to confirm this is a 2009 date!

Although West Plains, Missouri is only about 30 miles from my hometown of Salem, Arkansas, it's halfway around the world from Seoul, South Korea, where I currently live, so I won't be able to make the concert, but if anyone reading my blog lives close enough to attend and gets to hear Jones play, let us know the details.

I don't know Mr. Denton personally, but I've checked with bass musician Jerry Bone to find out more. Jerry tells me that he's aware of the planned concert but cannot be there himself because his son is graduating from college in Chicago at the same time.

For those who want to know details, Mr. Denton has posted more information at his MySpace site on "The Ozarks Homecoming Concert in Memory of Mark Sallings of the Famous Unknowns."

"David Lynn Jones . . . the real one"

David Lynn Jones

A High-Ridin' Hero

(Image from Batesville Daily Guard)

Some readers may have noticed that I like country music and have occasionally posted entries about this musical tradition, sometimes mentioning David Lynn Jones, a very talented musician and songwriter who grew up in my region of the Ozarks.

Jones seemed to have disappeared at the beginning of this millennium, and his fans have wondered what happened to him. Well, the story is one that deserves a country-and-western song of its own, and maybe Jones will write it.

Okay, I've never done this before, but I'm going to post an entire article that has recently appeared in the Batesville Daily Guard because this fine article doesn't seem to be available online at that newspaper's website, so if you're a David Lynn Jones fan, you'll appreciate this, and if you're a lawyer for the Batesville Daily Guard, I hope that you'll be understanding since I'm not posting this for financial reward but to draw attention to Jones and also to the excellent newspaper in which this article appeared.

I assume that the photo above is related to the Jones story because it appears on the website for the Batesville Daily Guard and asserts that this is "David Lynn Jones . . . the real one" (March 18, 2009). But it's attributed to Melanie Heath and has no story, just this caption:

David Lynn Jones performs on the Independence County Fairgrounds stage a few years back. Izard County’s Jerry Bone is playing bass guitar in the group.

The photo itself must be quite old, perhaps the mid-1980s, but perhaps we'll be seeing some more current photos of Jones someday soon. Anyway, let's read the story, which was sent to me by way of a Jones fan named "Di" who'd received it from a friend who works for the Batesville Daily Guard. The story is by associate editor Larry Stroud, but I don't have the title . . . unless it's "David Lynn Jones . . . the real one":

After fighting identity theft for seven years, country singer/songwriter David Lynn Jones is ready to take back his life.

During that time, Jones, on paper, was three people -- and at times, four.

"Two guys were playing me," Jones said. "It's unimaginable, until you go through it . . . that someone who doesn't even look like you can steal your identity. The damage," he said, "is incalculable."

Jones may be ready to sing "I Feel A Change Comin' On" again. That's the title of one of his singles from his heyday.

During better times, Jones released four acclaimed albums -- "Hard Times on Easy Street" (1987), "Wood, Wind and Stone" (1990), "Mixed Emotions" (1992) and "Play by Ear" (1994).

His charting singles include "Bonnie Jean (Little Sister)" which was also a popular music video on television, "High Ridin’ Heroes" (with Waylon Jennings), "The Rogue" and "Tonight in America."

He may be best-known for writing "Living in the Promiseland," a No. 1 hit for Willie Nelson.

While Jones kept writing songs during the past seven years, he could not release them because the identity theft culprits were getting his royalty checks by having the checks sent to their address. Much of the time, that address was in Colorado.

Now, Jones and his wife, Illa, who live east of Cave City, are looking forward to teaming up to record and release a new album.

He also has unreleased albums from the past that can now be put before the public.

"There's five (previously recorded David Lynn Jones) albums that never were released," Jones said. He plans to make those available to buyers on the Internet within the next few months.

Fans should be patient, though, because it may take quite awhile, he said.

In February, Baxter County sheriff’s investigators arrested Danny James Sullivan, who was working at a McDonald's in Mountain Home under the name David Lynn Jones.

Sullivan was also drawing disability checks from the government under his own name while working at the McDonald's under Jones' name. His aliases include Danny J. Bass and Danny J. Rader.

A day later, acting on a tip, the alleged mastermind of the plot, Janis Rae Wallace, was arrested at a home in Fayetteville. Wallace is also known as Janis French and Janis Rae Jones, the name she used while posing as the real Davis Lynn Jones' "wife."

She's even booked into the jail as Janis Rae Jones.

Wallace and Sullivan, both 51, remain in jail -- she, on a $500,000 bond and he, on a $200,000 bond.

They are each charged with nine counts of felony financial identity fraud, according to an affidavit filed with the charges and signed by sheriff's Sgt. Bob Buschbacher.

The information filed with the charges and in arrest reports matches the story told by Jones -- the real Jones.

"Those are all federal charges," Jones said.

The theft started, Jones said, when Wallace stole his driver's license while working for him.

"At the time, my Social Security number was the same as my driver's license number, and with just that information, they infiltrated my life," Jones said.

Soon, he was getting no mail. It was all going to the fake David Lynn Jones' address via an address change. The mail included preapproved credit card applications that the thieves filled out; after they maxed out the cards, they reported them stolen.

"Among the stolen items via mail were personal checks and business checks from music royalties the victim had earned as a songwriter and musician," Sgt. Buschbacher said.

"They had 'me' moved to Colorado; my phone was shut off," Jones said. "This was back in 2002 . . . . By the time we realized what was going on, we couldn't get it stopped. They wound up with my royalty checks from publishing music," including royalties from "Living in the Promiseland."

Buschbacher said that in the beginning, to further the identity theft scheme, Sullivan, posing as Jones, filled out an identity theft passport request victim information sheet and submitted it to the attorney general's office. Then, he obtained an Arkansas driver's license in the victim's name.

Meanwhile, Jones' elaborate and well-known recording studio at Bexar was stripped of all its expensive equipment.

"I still own the studio," Jones said Saturday. "It's for sale and has been for some time. These people had gone out there and took down the for sale sign and put up no trespassing signs. They were drawing money out of my checking account, which eventually caused me to be overdrafted," he said. His interest rates were doubled because of a bad credit rating.

And to add insult to injury, Wallace convinced people who dealt with Jones financially that someone was trying to steal her identity ("She was speaking as my 'wife,'" Jones said). So, those who could have helped would not even listen to the real Jones.

"When we started talking to credit card companies and banks, they didn’t believe it (was me)," Jones said.

The crowning portion of the identity theft scheme was yet to come.

"They started telling everybody I'd been in a horrible accident in Colorado and I was in a wheelchair and I couldn't play and sing anymore," Jones said. "She even wrote a letter and sent it to all of my family saying that."

Since he had been busy with his work during the earlier part of the problems and hadn't been in touch with family members regularly, several of them even believed the accident story, he said.

"My mother (Verna Jones) passed away during all of this and we were trying to make funeral arrangements," and a check his brother mailed to help with those expenses went to Colorado into the thieves' hands, Jones said. "Even my own brother didn't understand what was going on. I told him I never got the check . . . . It's so crazy when you're actually experiencing it."

The investigation revealed that Wallace and Sullivan obtained a Social Security card, a Colorado identification card and the Arkansas driver's license, all in the name of David Lynn Jones. Wallace then obtained power of attorney over Jones, claiming he was mentally disabled due to the fake "accident."

Wallace and Sullivan were even filing joint federal income tax returns as Mr. and Mrs. David Lynn Jones. Those returns were filed in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Jones said as soon the investigation revealed the first name of the suspect, he knew who was behind the scheme even though she was giving her last name as Jones. Still, the identity thieves stayed one step ahead of authorities for a long time.

Before being arrested, Wallace and Sullivan were trying to get the title to some land Jones owns in Baxter County, authorities said.

A break in the case occurred 15 months ago when Wallace, as Mrs. Jones, and Sullivan, as Jones, applied in person for an identity theft passport at the Arkansas Attorney General's Office.

As soon as Wallace and Sullivan were arrested, investigators obtained search warrants for their houses. Jones said several items found in their homes could only have been obtained by their breaking into his home east of Cave City, where he and his wife have lived for five years.

"We've known for years things were being pilfered, things moved around. They were hanging out in the woods, watching for us to leave (so they could get into the house)."

Investigators found pictures and other items taken from inside Jones' house, as well as photos of the house taken from the driveway.

Jones said officers on the trail of the crooks had been advising Jones for months to be alert and stay well-armed, because one possible logical next step could be to eliminate Jones and his wife, so the identity thieves "could become us. That could have been the last (planned) step," particularly with them applying for the identity passport, Jones said. "Who knows what would have happened next?"

He has high praise for the attorney general's agent who felt something was wrong when Wallace and Sullivan approached him about getting that passport.

"That's what got them caught," Jones said.

The agent was suspicious enough to go into another room and look for pictures of Jones on the Internet. The pictures did not match the man claiming to be Jones.

"If it had not been for the attorney general's office, it'd still be going on," Jones said. "The attorney general's officer said it was the worst case he'd ever seen in all his years of investigating identity theft."

Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said the investigation involved personnel from the attorney general's office, the Social Security Administration's Inspector General's office and the sheriff's office.

Jones said he expects he still has years to go to clear the damage to his name.

When asked what the identity theft has cost him, Jones did not give a dollar figure. Instead, he said quietly, "It's cost me seven years of my life."

Well, that's quite a story. I knew something about it before this story broke because in the comments to my first blog entry about David Lynn Jones, a 'discussion' took place concerning the 'real' Jones. Based on what a couple of my brothers who know Jones personally had told me, I stated that Jones was living near Cave City. But a man in Mountain Home posted a comment stating that he had met the real Jones there in Mountain Home. I had my doubts and asked another friend, Herschel Ducker of Melbourne, Arkansas, to check this out. Our 'private' investigation was operating parallel to the official one, though we didn't know about that. The authorities were aware of my blog and were, apparently, concerned that the fake Jones might be alerted by Herschel's inquiries. At any rate, Herschel and I quickly concluded that the Mountain Home 'Jones' was a fraud, but we had no absolute proof and left things at that. We were both enormously relieved to learn that the law had caught up with the identity thieves. Herschel found out before I did because the authorities contacted him to let him know that they were investigating the man in Mountain Home who was claiming to be Jones. Soon after that, the story broke.

Now that the real Jones has his life back, maybe he can get on with his life and give us some more great music . . . like "High Riding Heroes," which he sings with Waylon Jennings and which you can now enjoy on You Tube:

Daylight or midnight,
red eyes and that old hat,
whiskey-spent and busted flat,
and a credit to his faults.
He's a bad risk and a good friend,
small change and loose ends,
and he only regrets that he might've been
a little faster on the draw

Hey, those old high ridin' heroes,
they're anywhere the wind blows.
He's been to hell and Texas
and he knows how it feels
to be ridin' that hot streak,
drunk on some back street,
fallin' off the wagon,
and under the wheels.

Time was, when he was king.
Now the rodeo's just an old man's dream,
and the highs are few and far between,
and the lows get the rest.
But these old hard times ain't nothin' new.
Once you've done the best you can do,
You just tip your hat to the wider blue,
Ride off to the west.

Hey, those old high ridin' heroes,
they're anywhere the wind blows.
He's been to hell and Texas
and he knows how it feels
to be ridin' that hot streak,
drunk on some back street,
fallin' off the wagon,
and under the wheels.

Maybe Jones can finally get out from under those wagon wheels, back onto the road again, and those five albums released.

UPDATE: From Jerry Bone, I have a correction concerning the photo above, which I had mis-dated around the mid-80s: "I would say 91 was the correct time frame. The other two band members in the pic are Rick Richards on drums who lives in Houston Texas and on percussion Richie Albright former drummer with Waylon for 15 plus years. Richie played drums on all those old hits of Waylons. In fact he was back with Jennings when Waylon became ill and passed away. Richie was our road manager in those days . . . . I think he is working with Jessie Colter now Waylons wife."

Stan Hitchcock: Country Music "Musicologist"

Stan Hitchcock

(Image from Hitchcock Country)

On December 22nd, I posted an entry on David Lynn Jones -- the multitalented songwriter, singer, and musician who has become somewhat of a hermit in recent years -- and in that post, I linked to a video on You Tube that has David Lynn playing and singing his song "When Times Were Good, and You Were Mine," accompanied on guitar by Stan Hitchcock.

In that blog entry, I wrote:

Meanwhile, I found a video at You Tube of Jones playing a piece with country musician Stan Hitchcock in the latter 1980s, I think, for Stan Hitchcock's Heart to Heart show on Country Music Television.

Well, I was wrong about the date, for Stan Hitchcock himself visited my blog and courteously corrected my errant speculation in the course of saying several complimentary things about David Lynn Jones:

Jeff, I've been in music professionally for 50 years in 2009 and David Lynn Jones is the single most talented artists/songwriters I've ever had the pleasure to sit across a guitar with. David and I became friends back in the 80's when I was running CMT and I had a show called "Stan Hitchcock's Heart to Heart". The particular cut you are offering, from You Tube, is from a Heart to Heart that David and I did in Branson, MO in 1994 and one of my very favorites. He's got so much music in him that somehow we need to get more of it out for the world to enjoy. Thanks for offering this clip of "Stan Hitchcock's Heart to Heart" and may your gypsy wanderings be good. From one Ozark Mountain boy to another, Best Wishes on the New Year.

Flattered that my little blog should receive such attention, I replied:

Stan, it's an honor for me to welcome you here in your visit to my little Hillbilly-Gypsy blog.

I never would have expected this, but thank you for dropping in and clarifying the date of the video: 1994. I happened to see David Lynn that year, I believe, in my brother John's church in Viola.

A year later, I got married to my wife Sun-Ae in an old church not far from David Lynn's Bexar place, and we played his "Nightingale Waltz" on a cassette during the wedding feast there in the church.

On the way back to Salem, my hometown, we stopped at 'The Alamo' to speak with David Lynn, who was a bit embarrassed when we told him that we'd played his song at our wedding.

Anyway, a Happy New Year to you, too, and thanks again for the visit.

David Lynn's embarrassment, by the way, might stem from the fact that "Nightingale Waltz" is a song about a failed relationship and therefore not particularly auspicious for the occasion of a wedding. I would post the lyrics, but I don't have them perfectly in my memory, my brother John has the cassette with him back in our Ozark hometown, and I can't find the lyrics anywhere online. If any of my readers has the lyrics to "Nightingale Waltz" (from David Lynn's 1994 album, Play by Ear), then feel free to post them in a comment.

At any rate, Stan Hitchcock read my response to his comment and left a reply:

Good to visit with you. You have an interesting site and life. I was raised on a farm around Pleasant Hope, Missouri and moved to Nashville in 1962. Ozark blood runs true and always pulls you back home.

It certainly does exert that pull. Much of my blog has been devoted to Ozark memories, so much so that my non-hillbilly readers might find some of these blog entries difficult to identify with.

Similarly, some people might not appreciate country music. My high school math teacher, Mr. Jim Scott, who grew up in Chicago but fell in love with the Ozarks, married into an Ozark family, and made the Ozarks his home, doesn't care for country music. I once asked him -- since he'd been something of a cowboy in his younger days -- if he ever listened to country music. "Not if I can help it," he replied. And that's okay, nobody's forced to like it (though it seems that Jim's cowboy buddies may have forced him to listen to it).

However, if you like country music, or wonder what all the hollerin' is about, then try a visit to Stan Hitchcock's website, which informs us:

This is the official site for Stan Hitchcock, a country "musicologist" noted for his hit recordings in the 60's, his syndicated television shows in the 70's and his three cable television networks from the 80's to present: CMT, Americana Television Network and currently BlueHighways TV. Stan has been both a participant and an observer of this music industry over a fifty year span; traveling with the greats, singing at the top, making stars on television and discovering new paths for the music makers and their art.

The man also has his own blog there and demonstrates a quirky sense of humor:

Well, we been having a drought in Tennessee for the past couple of years so my pasture on our Deshea Creek farm is not what it should be. Denise tends her flowers, and they been doing allright, getting watered and all, but my pasture’s bout gone. Been having to buy hay for my horses pretty early. I feed good quality grass hay in big old round bales, fresh cut by one of our neighbors, Troy Patterson. Well I hauled the first couple of bales and set them out in the horse pasture and figured that ought to last my three horses for awhile. Dang, bout a week later they were going through that hay like a whole herd of hungry horses were at it. Few days later it was almost gone. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, my three horses are pretty fat, but no way they could go through hay that fast. Well, I went to pick up some more hay and sit it out in the field, this time with four big round bales. About ten that night, with a full moon shining, I went outside to kinda check things out. Real quiet I walked up to the rail fence and looked out where I had put the bales in the horse pasture. Yep, there was my three horses with their heads in the hay alright, but it was them twenty or so deer forming a semi circle around the hay that were having a field day with my hay. Them dern horses had been inviting every deer in the county to come over and chow down with them. Well, I don’t begrudge the horses having friends over for a social evening, after all they’re just being neighborly and that's a good thing.

That's right -- it is a good thing, so be neighborly and drop in on Stan sometime for music and stories.

UPDATE: Stan Hitchcock has the original of his Heart to Heart video with David Lynn Jones singing "When Times Were Good, and You Were Mine" on the Blue Highways website with better quality in its sound and its image.

David Lynn Jones: "When Times Were Good and You Were Mine"

David Lynn Jones

Blue Highways TV

Heart to Heart Classics

(Image from You Tube)

Yesterday, I received an email from a friend of David Lynn Jones back home in the Ozarks. He wanted to let me know that he might be working on some old Jones tapes, including the gospel music tape that I've previously written about on this blog. These tapes were made back in the early to mid-nineties and were thought to be mostly lost but seem to have been found, and a couple of Ozark folks are planning to make an attempt at digitalizing the recordings. Let's hope that this pans out.

Meanwhile, I found a video at You Tube of Jones playing a piece with country musician Stan Hitchcock in the latter 1980s, I think, for Stan Hitchcock's Heart to Heart show on Country Music Television.

The song is one that David Lynn Jones wrote, "When Times Were Good and You Were Mine," which I believe has been recorded by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.

There's a place, I can go, in my memories,
Back to a life I chose to leave behind,
And sometimes I still need to remember
When times were good, and you were mine.

I'm still livin' with my reasons for leaving.
They must have seemed more important at the time,
'Cause now, I only dream about the two of us,
When times were good, and you were mine.

I've still got everything that came between us,
This old guitar and a weakness for the wine,
So tonight, I thought I'd write one for the memories
When times were good, and you were mine.

There's a Golden Eagle rollin out of Memphis
And a country singer still lost between the lines,
And I know the old road I'm on will never lead me
Where times were good, and you were mine.

I've still got everything that came between us,
This old guitar and this weakness for the wine,
So tonight, I thought I’d write one for the memories
When times were good, and you were mine.

If you missed the links above, then use this one here to access You Tube and watch David Lynn Jones play and sing "When Times Were Good and You Were Mine" before somebody yanks it off the internet.

I wish that there were more online.

Jerry Bone on David Lynn Jones's Music

Mr. Jerry Bone

On bass guitar, some years back...

(Image from marksallings.com)

I mentioned in a recent post that I'd located on MySpace the bass guitarist Jerry Bone, who used to work with David Lynn Jones, and that I'd sent him an email to ask if he was involved in the gospel CD by Jones that I have a bootleg copy of.

Mr. Bone has since replied and proven to be not only a musician but also a real gentleman, and we've exchanged a few emails. Concerning the gospel CD, he informs me:

[I played] a small role but none the less I have fond memories and would very much like a copy of your CD so I can finish what I started concerning the gospel music you speak of.

I sent Mr. Bone some contact numbers that might lead him directly to the tape itself, and he replied:

I appreciate the numbers to contact about the tunes. I have a question. The CD you speak of. Is that made from a cassette? What type of tape was the CD made from? Interesting read about the meanings and perspectives of David's songs. I can tell you that Jones is a very spiritual soul and perhaps for most a little hard to understand but he is a master of his craft as most would agree . . . . My prayer is that the old Jones will rise again to give us more food for thought through his music. When we got off the road back in the 90's, we re-did a lot of the Jones music from his first CD -- or album as it were -- plus enough new material for at least 2 CDs. I feel it's some of the best yet to come. I just pray that is not been lost in the shuffle. I have the orginal DAT [i.e., Digital Audio Tape] with the gospel songs but Jones had not kept it out of weather conditions and it broke while I was attempting to mix it down for a CD. Managed to save most of the tunes and perhaps I can find someone to fix the DAT tape. I still plan to put it together and approach Jones about what he would like to do with the songs. I think people deserve to hear this masterpiece.

I replied to Mr. Bone's further query:

It had occurred to me this morning that the best thing would be for you to have the original tape that my nephew Justin . . . found when he helped Jones's wife clean out old things. I don't know for a fact that Justin still has that, but he used it to make the CDs and would probably have saved it. I believe that it was a tape on a spool rather than a cassette, but I'm not certain, but it had only gospel songs on it, nothing else, according to my nephew.

Justin, as I've mentioned in some blog post or other, is a bass guitarist for a band in Batesville, Arkansas called Gazer, and I know that he'd like to help get more of David Lynn Jones's music out there for the public to appreciate. Mr. Bone sounds hopeful about that, for he wrote:

Thanks for making the contact with me because I think this could be a seed planted for the good.

Perhaps, like a mustard seed, this one will grow into a tree great enough for the fowl of the air to rest upon and sing. The gospel CD alone would be worth the effort expended in producing it, and if the music that Jones, Bone, and the others redid from Jones's first album can be located, especially if found with the new material that would fill at least two CDs, then we all have something very special to look forward to.

Maybe it would even bring Jones out of his retirement.

"High Ridin' Heroes"

David Lynn Jones

Hard Times on Easy Street

(Image from Amazon.com)

I once mentioned a bootleg CD of gospel music played and sung by David Lynn Jones that my brother Tim told me included a musician named Jerry Bone. Yesterday, I was thinking about that CD and decided to look for Jerry Bone on the internet. I found him at Oxford, Arkansas, only a bit over ten miles from my hometown . . . well, actually, I found him on MySpace. He has an interesting bio there in which, among other things, he recalls earlier days playing music with David Lynn Jones:

Not until I was in my later years and many musical chairs down the road did I get a glimpse of what the music chase was all about. A long time friend "David Lynn Jones" landed a major record deal with polygram records after he wrote a song called "Living In the Promise Land" which was a big hit for Willie Nelson in the early 80's and also recorded later by Joe Cocker.

Jones was at the liberty of choosing his band members for an extensive tour and I was fortunate to have been chosen for the job of playing bass. From 88 till mid 90's we were on the tail wind of every popular country artist and venue during that time frame. Concerts, CMT videos, etc, I felt blessed to have played on 3 of his cd's released on the "liberty" label under the command of Jimmy Bowen. Jones's music like any music is not for everyone but he was and still is a major influence and mentor. He is a master of his craft, and I believe someday his music will be like the Mona Lisa.

Those days were experiences and opportunities I would have never had if not for his friendship and expertise. One of the many highlights of that Jones experience was working with the late great Mick Ronson during the pre-production recordings of a Jones project called "Wood Wind and Stone". We were recording in Bexar Arkansas in an old converted commissary we called the Alamo. I have a picture Of Mick Picking ticks on a hot day of what seemed like endless sessions. A real gentleman and powerful talent in every respect. His passing was a great loss. I'll try and post the tick pic soon. I have to mention that Richie Albright our road manager and producer was an inspiring force in the Jones days.

I sent Bone an email to ask if he was in fact involved in that gospel CD, but I haven't heard anything from him yet. For more on some of those days that Bone recalls, see this article "Living in the promised land," by Angelia Roberts, written for the Batesville Daily Guard (March 16, 2005).

Meanwhile, here are the lyrics to a David Lynn Jones song -- from Hard Times on Easy Street -- that you can find sung on You Tube by a country musician who calls himself "Campfire Cowboy" and does a respectable enough job:

High Ridin' Heroes

David Lynn Jones

Daylight or midnight,
red eyes and that old hat,
whiskey-spent and busted flat,
and a credit to his faults.
He's a bad risk and a good friend,
small change and loose ends,
and he only regrets that he might've been
a little faster on the draw

Hey, those old high ridin' heroes,
they're anywhere the wind blows.
He's been to hell and Texas
and he knows how it feels
to be ridin' that hot streak,
drunk on some back street,
fallin' off the wagon,
and under the wheels.

Time was, when he was king.
Now the rodeo's just an old man's dream,
and the highs are few and far between,
and the lows get the rest.
But these old hard times ain't nothin' new.
Once you've done the best you can do,
You just tip your hat to the wider blue,
Ride off to the west.

Hey, those old high ridin' heroes,
they're anywhere the wind blows.
He's been to hell and Texas
and he knows how it feels
to be ridin' that hot streak,
drunk on some back street,
fallin' off the wagon,
and under the wheels.

Bone mentioned that from 1988 to the mid-90s, the Jones band did a lot of Country Music Television videos, so there must be a lot of Jones's music recorded and stored away somewhere but that hasn't made it onto You Tube. The one video recording that I'd earlier found there, "Bonnie Jean," has been removed. Only a nonvideo recording of "Bonnie Jean" remains.

A lot of things in these hard times have just gone "fallin' off the wagon, / and under the wheels."

Grandpa Archie: Cousin Bill's Comment

Typical Ozark Scene

White River

Not terribly far from Norfork Lake

(Image from ozarkmountains.org)

Even Cousin Bill is now waxing nostalgic -- as readers of Sunday's comments already know -- but his nostalgia is as well-waxed as Grandpa Archie's old pickup truck . . . actually far better, for that truck was never waxed. Anyway, I've posted Cousin Bill's comment here, which begin with a reference to the music of David Lynn Jones:

In a previous Blog comment I relayed my two memories of DLJ's beautiful music.

Bill, I found one memory but not the other. No matter, though, carry on:

Now, I will relay two or three stories about Grandpa Arch.

For the benefit of my foreign readership -- such as folks from the State of Misery, just north of Arkansas, or elsewhere beyond even state lines -- the following scene takes place at my paternal grandmother's Big Creek farm, which was situated some eight miles from Norfork Lake, about halfway between the small northern Arkansas towns of Eliabeth and Viola, up on an Ozark ridge, mostly, and at the isolated end of a six-mile dirt road, just at the beginning of the wild lands, so there was a lot of wildlife around there. Grandpa Archie, as I've noted before, was a genuine woodsman -- the old-style hillbilly of part-Cherokee blood who grew up knowing the woods and hills and the creatures in them. According to Cousin Bill:

We (myself, wife, Grandma Nora and Grandpa Arch) were sitting in the living room late one night when Archie turned his head, listened intently to something, arose and proceeded outside without a word. Shortly the front door opened and Archie walks in, one arm behind his back, grinned and thrust a neck-held live possum straight out for all to see. He explained he heard a ruckess in the hen house. I have a picture of old Arch standing there with the critter, and, well, he's grinning like a possum.

Knowing Grandpa Archie, he probably let the poor creature go free . . . unless he decided that it would make a good possum pie for the next evening meal. Grandpa Archie was always catching some creature with just his hands. I'd seen him sneak up silently behind a bullfrog and grab it with his hands before it even noticed him, which may not sound like a great accomplishment, but just try it some time, and with your own repeated failures will come some respect for a fellow who could do it easily, repeatedly, without fail.

I wouldn't be especially surprised to learn that he'd also caught a bird that way . . . though I've never heard that he did. But I've seen him catch those big glade lizards, a feat requiring even more skill than catching bullfrogs.

The next scene described by Cousin Bill takes place mainly on the narrow dirt road leading down the farm's ridge on its steep side, which was wooded and rapidly declined some hundred and fifty feet or more in altitude along its slope to the little, spring-fed branch below:

Secondly, years ago, I took little brother Scott (a college freshman) to the farm for a week. While there we contributed to the woodpile, with Archie doing the cutting, us trying to split and stack, did a little fishing and ate them out of house and home. While there we headed to town in Archie's black, hand-brush-painted pickup. We headed down the lane, round the curve and down the hill toward the branch, and this pickup was rapidly gaining speed with Archie frantically clutching and going through the gears. I looked toward Archie, noticed mid seated brother Scott's sudden large eyeballs, and tried to calmly ask why he didn't use the brakes. The answer, "ain't got any, haven't had any for a long time". And so we continued [the seven miles] to Viola and back.

Broken down that truck may have been, but Grandpa Archie was partial to it . . . and he was a man of principle, in some mighty peculiar ways, as Cousin Bill relates:

In later years that pickup carried license tags with an outdated year sticker. I ask why no renewal, Archie's reply was "the tax went up a dollar and I ain't gonna pay it".

The government wasn't about to stop Grandpa Archie . . . nor was old age, as the next scene reveals:

Another time years ago, the wife and I took Grandma Nora and Grandpa Archie to the Salem singing, note here that it was darn good music by local folks, and I can vouch for Archie's dancing ability, even twirling around a little with Grandma and my bride. I even thought Grandpa Arch had perhaps located a little moonshine the way he twirled around.

Grandpa Archie stayed healthy, strong, and often slightly unshaven nearly so long as he lived, as Cousin Bill's wife can also attest:

And wife Cheryl still remembers us arrving for a visit and Archie's quick pace (even in later years) heading her way. Once there he give her his big hug and going for the welcome kiss would leave scratch marks from his two day old whiskers.

I remember those scratchy whiskers, too, but I noticed that Grandpa Archie always shaved on Sunday mornings, and when he had got dressed up, too, he looked right handsome.

Cousin Bill winds his anecdotes down by confirming two of Uncle Cran's creature-feature tales . . . but goes on to warn about an additional story, a tale of what sounds like a far more alarming but thankfully imaginary creature apparently dreamed up by Uncle Cran in some techno-dystopian-induced nightmare:

I've lots of good memories of both grandparents. Good people and characters, both of them. Now, to our Uncle Cran's fishing/turtle tale, lightning strike tale and upcoming bear story. I believe the first two, however, if he comes up with some hare brained snake story about rattleheadedcoppermoccasins, I'll suggest he was a little touched by Arkansas "Fan Death" when electricity arrived at the farm and the Flora community in, I believe, the early 50's. Or he got a little brain-toasted from hours sitting under the single, center ceiling mounted light bulb or got the neck noosed by the lightbulb's pull string hanging down.

'Fan Death' in the Ozarks?! Say it ain't so! I remember Flora Church in the early 1960s, and folks were still sitting and sweating in pews despite the open windows that let the wasps in, and every soul was waving those hand-held fans with depictions of Jesus holding a little lost lamb, without an electric fan in sight, so I doubt that Uncle Cran suffered there from the effects of the most-dreaded entity, the electric fan . . . unless you mean (shudder) in the farmhouse itself, a thing too terrible to imagine -- and largely unimaginable anyway, for Grandma Nora and Grandpa Archie both lived to be nearly 100, a feat impossible if their health had been affected by deadly electric fans. But brain damage by radiant waves emanating from that single light bulb . . . well, that may be a factor in Uncle Cran's amazing stories. Couldn't be that bulb's pull string, though, for pull strings are harmless. They don't pull; they are pulled.

Cousin Bill then tacks on a couple of three lines more:

And one word on our Grandpa Horace. Dad once told me "if you like Woodrow, you'd have loved my Dad. Will wait for more tales from you both.

I wish that I knew more about my paternal grandfather Horace, for I've inherited his name, but if he was like Woodrow, then I would indeed have loved him. As for tales from me, they'll have to wait until Uncle Cran finishes those two still untold tales about a bear . . . and some imaginary varmint called a rattleheadedcoppermoccasin?

I presume that this latter 'critter' has never been confirmed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Grandpa Archie

Grandpa Archie's Style of Pick-Up Truck

Keepin' that left-front wheel on the center line of life!

(Image from Wikipedia)

Uncle Cran posted a very interesting comment to yesterday's blog entry.

As readers will already know, I had written that blog entry using a comment left by a Mr. M. Shane Klein on one of my previous blog entries about the Ozark country musician David Lynn Jones. Mr. Klein had happened to remark on my reference to a man whom I called "Grandpa Archie" -- stepgrandfather to me and uncle to both David Lynn Jones and Mr. Klein himself.

Archie was, moreover, a stepfather to my Uncle Cran, who remembers . . .

I well remember both David Lynn Jones and my stepfather, Archie Dillinger. My father died when I was age two and a half. My memories of my father were more like dreams, just brief excerps. Mom kept us kids together, remaining single for ten years.

For those who didn't read yesterday's blog, I'll just add interject that Uncle Cran's father (my paternal grandfather) died in the early 1940s as a result of injuries sustained in a tree-felling accident.

Then[, after those ten years without a husband,] she met Archie, they were married, and he became basically the only father my sister Virginia and I really knew. Virginia was only five months old when dad died.

Archie was a good man. He and mom were married for forty years. He wasn't afraid of anything. I'll just mention one incident. We had a neighbor, who I won't name, who had a reputation as a knife fighter. In fact, he cut up a drunk who picked a fight with him, and the man nearly bled to death before they got him to a doctor.

I think that I might know that neighbor . . . if he was the one involved in moonshining.

This neighbor tried to encroach his fences on neighbors, and did so to one family. Not long after Archie and mom married, this neighbor sent a logging crew to cut timber off a piece of ground of ours. Archie ran them off. In Viola a short time later, Archie was sitting at one of the store fronts with some others. This neighbor came by, Archie confronted him and told him to keep off our land. The man pulled out his knife. Archie told him, "If you don't want to have to pull that knife out of your *** you better stick it back in your pocket." He did, and they never had another problem.

Fascinating. The closest to a curse that I ever heard Grandpa Archie use was "Shht!" He used that expression to avoid saying "Sh*t!" because asterisks are so difficult to pronounce. Yet . . . he managed three asterisks in a row to avoid the synonym for "donkey"!

Archie's driving habit was unique, He drove 35 mph an hour, whether on a gravel road, or the highway, keeping the left tire on the center line. Your brother John was riding with him, and said, "Grandpa Archie, what if you meet a car?" Archie said, "Somebody has to give."

Though I don't recall any center lines on gravel roads, I do distinctly remember Grandpa Archie's driving technique. More method than habit -- as Archie explained it -- for I asked him why he drove like that on highways, and he insisted that the center lines were painted on the highway to tell drivers precisely where to place the front left tire. Like my brother John, I then asked Archie what happened if two vehicles approached from opposite directions. "One of you just moves over," he replied, unperturbed. His answer to me, while less worrisome than the game of chicken implied in his reply to my brother John, was hardly reassuring, but I did notice that Grandpa Archie never encountered any driver with the same driving method, so the dilemma never presented itself.

The last photo that I have of Archie is one that Sun-Ae took. Archie, about 95 but still handsome, smiling, and looking strong, was standing beside me, his arm around my shoulder. Only seconds before, he'd pointed to me and said, "He's a dandy!"

Which didn't imply that I was a Baudelairean flâneur -- that "gentleman stroller of city streets" -- but simply that I was a fine, fun fellow.

I still miss that good old man.

David Lynn Jones: Kith and Kin

David Lynn Jones

- First from Right -

2006 Americana Music Conference and Awards

Wayne, Chip Taylor, Steve Popovich, Steve Popovich, Jr., and David Lynn Jones

- From Left to Right -

(Image by Michael Buffalo Smith)

I got home from church today and hadn't blogged this morning because the adapter to my internet connection had gone out, but I immediately found something for today's blog topic because Mr. M. Shane Klein, a cousin to David Lynn Jones, had visited my most recent blog entry concerning this extraordinarily talented musician and had left a message:

Hello Mr. Hodges, I have been reading your threads concerning David Lynn with interest. I was searching for a way to purchase David Lynn's music for my ipod and stumbled onto your MySpace page . . . or site . . . or whatever (forgive me, I'm not all that adept in the cybersphere). Anyway, my mother is David Lynn's cousin. My grandmother (sweetest woman that ever walked the earth) was David Lynn's mother's sister. I think I saw mention of Uncle Arch in a post along the way . . . that would be my grandmother's brother. I remember seeing Uncle Arch dance a jig when I was a small boy. We were at a concert where Aunt Hazel (David Lynn's mother's sister) was playing piano and her husband, my Uncle Thurl Cochran was playing fiddle. Music runs rich in that family.

Hello, Mr. Klein. You've stumbled onto what is known as a "blog" (abbreviation for "web log"), and you are very welcome here. If you're still looking for David Lynn's music for your ipod, you might check Amazon.com, for I've seen his music on sale there.

Yes, you did see your Uncle Arch mentioned, and if you search this blog for "Grandpa Archie," you'll find a few more mentions, including this one. He was my step-grandfather," having married my paternal grandmother sometime after Grandpa Hodges died from injuries incurred in a tree-felling accident.

Grandpa Archie was phenomenal. He was wirey, strong, in excellent health up to his 90s, and could outrun me even when he was in his 70s. He must have been a quarter Cherokee and kept a thick shock of hair his entire life! It did eventually turn white, though. He used to show me fox, deer, and even bear tracks in the sandy soil around the farm where he and my grandmother lived. And he could make a whistle from a stem and a leaf. I bet that Uncle Cran could fill you in on how Archie did it. It was pretty simple, as I remember, but I still don't quite recall the precise details.

As for the various people whom you mention, including the ones below, they are all very familiar.

I live in Iowa. My grandmother, Laudine Dillinger, of Bexar married Otis Felts of Wheeling and moved to Iowa together to farm and raise their family in the 40's. However, my mother, Cassie, and my Uncle Ed spent many summers with David Lynn when they would go down to visit their kin in Arkansas. My parents took us to visit the Aunts and Uncles in Arkansas many summers too. I last visited the area fairly recently for the funeral of my beloved Aunt Opal Dillinger (married Hayden). I didn't see David Lynn, but his daughter was there and sang beautifully at the funeral.

David Lynn sang at Grandpa Archie's funeral, I'm told, for I wasn't there, but my brother John performed the service. I heard his daughter sing at John's church in Salem last February.

Well, just thought I would say hi to you all. M. Shane Klein, Iowa

Thank you very much for visiting, Mr. Klein.

P.S. There is no reason to doubt the identity of the man in the video on myspace. That is David Lynn. (Although I see his profile says that he is 104 yrs old?!) I see you can buy music directly from the site. Of course, if there is someone out there malicious enough to try to steal his identity, I guess the video and music could all be pirated. Crazy world, this cyberspace.

Thanks for confirming the photo. As for stolen identities and pirated video and music (though I believe that the MySpace site is merely a photo and an audio), we'll find out for sure if and when my brother John visits David Lynn in Cave City.

Meanwhile, all of you fans, kith, and kin of David Lynn Jones, feel free to leave a comment.