By the time he reached 55, Stone Jack Jones had spent a lifetime as a carnie, ballet dancer, lute player and hundreds of other things, trying his luck from Buffalo Creek to Charleston to Boston to New York to Fort Worth to Atlanta to Nashville. Mostly, he made music—even if it was just playing on the street or at a nearly empty open mic. Then in 2003, he met Roger Moutenot, who’d engineered albums for They Might Be Giants and Yo La Tengo. And all of a sudden, something happened. Jones’ third album, Ancestor, is out now via Western Vinyl. He will also be guest editing all week. Read our new feature on him.
Jones: yikes, he’s in my living room. his parents smiling like everything is ok. he is singing a song. oh my god, this is not my house. i had to hide my music since i was supposed to be doing homework, which i was a big failure at. i got into movies free “look it’s ricky nelson’s younger brother!” i didn’t mind. i liked ricky, and free is free. but what’s going on here. the hollywood life says i am not a freak but home life says i’m fucked up cause i want to sing a song. the conclusion is i need to live somewhere else. so i did and i do. thanks to ricky; he gave me a life to go to. someplace to go to. a place of music and songs and maybe parents that thought there was value in that. that did not happen, but so what. be careful in airplanes.
