Search Results for: Steve Jones

Steve Jones: A Life Of Words and Water

by Jon Perrson

Steve Jones is known for telling a good story, but picking a single storyline about Steve Jones is another matter. His life’s voyage has taken many a tack to reach the safe harbors of his realized ambitions. The diverse views of port and starboard, of working man and intellectual, bring with them a collection of knowledge and experiences that mark a life of many satisfactions. And stories, the revered teaching tool of gathered wisdom.

To find Steve Jones on a late November afternoon, one must first find an iron gate, fashioned by a blacksmith from Mystic Seaport, topped with the letters FHP. Through this, a walkway leads to the back door which leads past a vintage wooden steering wheel and station. Stairs beckon one to the offices where Steve Jones sits waiting. There are books and boat models, and photographs, all arranged in the efficient clutter so misunderstood by the obsolescent modern time manager. Steve knows where everything is, and no one else needs to; it is the mark of a productive mind in constant motion.

Steve was introduced to boats and life on the water by his father, Edward Jones, who owned and sailed a string of sailboats throughout his life (“he swapped boats every two years,” recalls Steve.) For years the Jones crew sailed out of Essex, on the Connecticut River; there, young Steve met two men who would influence his view on life; Major William Smythe, who ran the Dauntless Shipyard, and Seth Persson, boat builder of Old Saybrook.

To honor his military service requirement, Steve joined the Coast Guard, where he served as a lighthouse keeper and crew at a lifeboat station on Delaware Bay. He recounts how there are no buoys on that lengthy stretch of water, only the lighthouses to keep the vigilant out of the surrounding shoals.

After leaving the Coast Guard, Steve worked for a time at the Mystic Marine Railway, in which his father had become a partner. These were the days of wooden boats, always in need of some amount of tinkering and tasks. But life afloat held sway, and on another tack Steve went lobstering, singlehanded on a traditional Noank boat with offset pilothouse, powered by a Lathrop engine, the local engine of choice.

These experiences continue to chart his life, and his work, the line between vocation and avocation often difficult to discern. Into this stream, a love of literature joins in, words flowing with the wakes of time spent working on lobsterboats, the waters of his cruising grounds reflecting passages of Shakespeare’s verse and rhyme.

At the University of Connecticut, Steve earned his degree in English, and acted out the world of Shakespeare’s words. His story remains on course with the university, as he continues a now decades long career as Professor Stephen Jones, at UConn’s Avery Point campus. There he teaches English, the works of Shakespeare, and courses in Coastal and Maritime Studies, which he championed into existence. His depth of knowledge and experience, coupled with his flair for storytelling, have earned him the highest praise a teacher may receive; that of his students, who rate him (at ratemyprofessor.com) as “the best English professor ever,” saying they “still think about things he taught me everyday.” And, a life’s lesson, “don’t be afraid of going on boats.”

Professor Jones continues his double-life as a literate boatman, being a founding co-owner of the West Mystic Wooden Boat Co. Here, people with an attraction to the wooden hulled boats of yore find a place to work on their prized projects, away from the mass production dreams of fiberglass and chrome.

Steve recounts how a young business-school type once defamed the old time boatyards of Steve Jones’ enlightened youth, an encounter which played a part in the founding of the boatyard. He has of late been inspired to write the story of his old fashioned boatyard, enough for the makings of a book on the subject.

There are other stories at this boatyard, filled with weathered characters also, and a boatyard cat, it seems; and, there are the old books of nautical feats and mariner’s lives, no longer published for the informing of younger generations.

And so it was, on another tack, that Steve and fellow mariner Robert McKenna formed Flat Hammock Press in 2001. The independent publishing company revives and reprints the maritime stories of the past, beginning with a series on the Prohibition rum runners of another era. Work continues on an extended story of The Real McCoy, a teetotaling boatbuilder turned rum runner who brought a mariner’s integrity to the smuggler’s trade.

Steve also edits books for some of the characters turned authors of his world; and he writes books, about the 1883 oyster boat Anne, restored and stewarded by the boatyard . There are illustrated children’s books about a boatyard cat named Scratch. And, due for publishing next year, a book on the timeless boatyard Steve and a cast of non-conforming characters have carved out on the Mystic River.

Words and action are a short tack away from film, a venue where Steve has enjoyed considerable and ongoing success. A series of documentaries have aired on Public Television, with a work on the rum running Real McCoy winning five Emmy awards. Next year, a documentary will air on the ferry boats of the Connecticut River, including the nation’s oldest at Rocky Hill.

On this now cool November evening, Steve Jones leads the way out of the offices of the Flat Hammock Press, located in the brick building which once housed part of the Lathrop Engine manufacturing plant. The buildings now house a restaurant and stores, and a link to a time when engines and boats were both local products. Across the street, Schooner Wharf hosts an array of vessels, the schooner Argia, the Alden cutter that Ed Jones sold in 1947 as a vessel too old to keep. At pier’s end is a rectangular vessel with handrails at each rail, an actor that with props and makeup plays the role of several generation’s ferry boats in Steve’s upcoming documentary.

Steve is as often at work on projects which carry the historic into a new round of living memory. Often he has personal connections to the public service her performs. For most people, a lighthouse is a picturesque and vaguely romantic structure on a lonely, windswept coast. For a former lighthouse keeper, lighthouses are both the apparatus of a sacred mission, and the home of fond and dramatic memories. When Groton’s Avery Point Light was under restoration, Steve and his son donated the labor to rebuild the lantern room, lighting if momentarily a beacon once again to the sailors and sightseers of the professor’s favored seas.

To some, Steve Jones may seem a paradox, a man always intent on present and future projects which tell the tales of the salt and earthy past. The purpose is clear, though; to keep memory alive of course, but also to bring a time of simple living to the complex lives of his young readers and students.

To post your comments, visit www.theresident.com or follow us on Twitter @Resident_News.

JOSH KAUFMAN Performs in the Musical Revival of “PIPPIN”

2014 WINNER OF NBC’S “THE VOICE”

JOSH KAUFMAN

WILL NOW BEGIN PERFORMANCES ON OCTOBER 31 IN

THE TONY-WINNING BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

PIPPIN

FOR A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT

Now Playing on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre

www.PippinTheMusical.com

Josh Kaufman, who in May of 2014 was announced as the winner of Season 6 of NBC’s hit show “The Voice” as a member of Usher’s team, will now make his Broadway debut earlier than previously announced. Kaufman will step into the title role in the Tony Award winning PIPPIN for a limited engagement beginning Friday, October 31 and will play a limited engagement through Sunday, January 4, 2015. Kyle Dean Massey is set to perform the role on Broadway through Wednesday, October 29. PIPPIN is now playing at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street).

 

Roger O. Hirson and Stephen Schwartz’s Tony Award winning musical comedy PIPPIN is directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus and features choreography by Tony Award nominee Chet Walker in the style of Bob Fosse and circus creation by Gypsy Snider of the Montreal-based circus company Les 7 doigts de la main (also known as 7 Fingers).

 

The current cast also features Carly Hughes as Leading Player, Tony Award nominee John Dossett as Charles, Tony Award nominee Charlotte d’Amboise as Fastrada, Rachel Bay Jones as Catherine and Lucie Arnaz as Berthe. Other members of the company include Mike Schwitter, Eli Tokash, Ashton Woerz, Kristin Allen, Mackenzie Bell, Colin Cunliffe, Ariana DeBose, Andrew Fitch, Lauren Joy Herley, Naël Jammal, Nicolas Jelmoni, Kai Johnson-Peady, Sam Lips, Richard Maguire, Brad Musgrove, Adam Roberts, Masha Terentieva, Kristen Beth Williams, Lara Seibert Young.

 

PIPPIN is the winner of four Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Diane Paulus). The show is also the recipient of four Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Director of a Musical (Diane Paulus) and Outstanding Choreography (Chet Walker and Gypsy Snider). The production also led the winners of the Outer Critics Circle Awards with seven wins including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Director of a Musical (Diane Paulus), Outstanding Choreographer (Chet Walker) and Outstanding Lighting Design (Kenneth Posner). PIPPIN received the Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical and two Fred and Adele Astaire Awards including Outstanding Choreographer of a Broadway Show (Chet Walker) and Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show (Charlotte d’Amboise).

 

With a book by Roger O. Hirson and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, PIPPIN features music supervision and arrangements by Nadia DiGiallonardo, orchestrations by Tony Award winner Larry Hochman, scenic design by Tony Award winner Scott Pask, costume design by Tony Award nominee Dominique Lemieux, lighting design by Tony Award winner Kenneth Posner, sound design by Tony Award nominees Jonathan Deans and Garth Helm. Casting by Telsey + Company.

 

Barry & Fran Weissler and Howard & Janet Kagan present the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) production of PIPPIN with Lisa Matlin, Kyodo Tokyo, A&A Gordon/Brunish Trinchero, Tom Smedes/Peter Stern, Broadway Across America, Independent Presenters Network, Norton Herrick, Allen Spivak, Rebecca Gold, Joshua Goodman, Steve McManus, David Robbins/Bryan S. Weingarten, Philip Hagemann/Murray Rosenthal, Jim Kierstead/Carlos Arana/Myla Lerner, Hugh Hayes/Jamie Cesa/Jonathan Reinis, Sharon A. Carr/Patricia R. Klausner, Ben Feldman, Square 1 Theatrics, Wendy Federman/Carl Moellenberg, Bruce Robert Harris/Jack W. Batman, Infinity Theatre Company/Michael Rubenstein, Michael A. Alden/Dale Badway/Ken Mahoney.

 

Royal heir Pippin is spurred on by a mysterious group of performers to embark on a death-defying journey to find his “corner of the sky.” The original production of PIPPIN, directed by Bob Fosse, premiered on Broadway in 1972. It won five Tony Awards and five Drama Desk Awards, and ran for close to 2000 performances before closing in 1977. This production of PIPPIN made its debut at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, MA, where Diane Paulus serves as Artistic Director; December 5, 2012 to January 20, 2013. PIPPIN is noted for many Broadway standards including “Corner of the Sky,” “Magic To Do,” “Glory,” “No Time at All,” “Morning Glow,” and “Love Song.”

 

PIPPIN is now playing a U.S. National Tour. Productions are also planned for London, Australia and Amsterdam in 2015. The New Broadway Cast Recording for PIPPIN is now available on Ghostlight Records.

 

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for PIPPIN are available through www.telecharge.com/pippin, by calling 212-239-6200, and in person at the Music Box Theatre box office (239 West 45th Street). Tickets range in price from $157.50 to $69 (all prices include a $2.00 facility fee). Premium seating is available.

 

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Tuesday – Saturday @ 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday @ 2:30pm (note the curtain time), Sunday at 3pm

For more information, visit www.PippinTheMusical.com

Follow PIPPIN on Twitter: @PippinMusical or on Facebook.

Follow BBB on Twitter: @BBBway and on Facebook. Visit our website.

Lantzapalooza Newza

Lantzapalooza Newza

Brand New On Your Desk!

RW Hampton

This Cowboy

In 1917, American artist Charles Russell famously told a friend in a poem “The West is dead.” It’s a bold claim that doesn’t quite hold up, says award-winning Western singer-songwriter RW Hampton. “The West lives on,” Hampton argues and he makes a strong case on his new This Cowboy.  This Cowboy is an album sure to please anyone who likes an honest Western song polished just enough to make it shine.

— Charley Engel / American Cowboy

www.rwhampton.com

Ingrid Gerdes

High Priestess

In a way, Ingrid Gerdes’ new album, High Priestess, is a throwback to days when a recording artists approached a new project as a complete package — a song cycle —  built around a particular theme.  Every track was written and produced and sequenced in a way that would convey a certain emotion or experience for the listener.  Ingrid took an old-school approach to her new release, High Priestess, choosing instead to attempt to create an experience for her fans through a complete collection.  Brought together by her unique blues-rock sensibilities, the result feels like summer in the South.  It is at times both cool and hot, breezy and still, and imbued with a shot of sass to Gerdes’ hot buttered soul, Dusty-in-Memphis delivery.

www.ingridgerdes.com

Eileen Rose

Be Many Gone

Eileen has drawn comparisons to the likes of Lucinda Williams (Time Magazine).  She recently wrapped up a successful tour of Europe.  “…Be Many Gone exudes the confidence of a singer and band that have honed their craft with hour upon hour of hard work… Rose’s finest to date.” (R2 Rock ‘n’ Reel)  “With a long and illustrious musical pedigree, the Americana-influenced Be Many Gone ranks among Eileen Rose Giadone’s best work!” (Press Association (UK))

www.eileenrose.com

Bill Wence

Songs That Make Me Think About You

Bill has worn many hats in the music business — a sideman for such artists as Bobby Bare and Wanda Jackson, a popular radio promoter for such artists as Johnny Rivers, and a recording artist.  His latest, Songs That Make Me Think About You, is a collection of songs (“Decades after beginning his career, Wence is still out there playing piano behind Bobby Bare and Wanda Jackson. Also, in addition to being a prolific record promoter, he is still making records, himself. This title tune to his latest is a jaunty, beach-y bopper.” (Robert K. Oermann / Music Row)

http://www.billwencepromotions.com/

Mike & Doris Merritt

Detours

The Cowboy Way of Life has always been a strong magnet for Mike and Doris Merritt.  Sure, there’s the romantic view of the West as seen in Hollywood movies, but for the Merritts it’s more than just riding horses across the wide open country under a great, big sky. “There’s a certain code of ethics and values that remain out here,” says Mike, who grew up in Texas.  “Not that everyone here is perfect, but the underlying, unspoken rule of thumb is that the Western way of life is more about how you live, not where you live.”  Now based in Oklahoma, the Merritts bring a fresh, positive message to their first ever duo album, Detours.

http://merrittcowboyministries.com/

Swamp Donky

Redneck Revival

One part country, one part rock, and all parts Southern probably best describes the band from North Louisiana known as Louisiana Swamp Donky. They spend their days in the oilfields, on the farm and driving trucks to provide a living for their families. They each have a work hard, play hard attitude and when it comes to their music, there is no denying their Southern roots.  Earlier this year, their authentic Southern Rock sound caught the ears of famed Southern Rock icon Richard Young of The Kentucky Headhunters.   The result.. foot-stompin’, Southern-fried Rockin’ country! 

DON’T FORGET

Dale Watson

The Truckin’ Sessions Triology

Praise is being heaped on Dale for his newest collection of Truckin’ Sessions songs.  Red River Entertainment put the 14 new tunes together with Dale’s previous two truckin’ albums for The Truckin’ Sessions Trilogy.  “The third installment of hardcore troubadour Watson’s truck-driving albums — think 18 wheels, not tailgates — is so full of romanticized life-is-a-highway anthems that, by record’s end, you’ll want to dial the number for your local big-rig school.” (Rolling Stone / Country)

www.dalewatson.com

Dan Cohen

Bluebird

A Nashville-base session guitarist, Dan’s new collection is filled with wonderful, eclectic songs.  “Cohen represents himself as a fine pop provocateur, a singer/songwriter with a keen sense of melody and an easy accessibility. A fine support crew — among them, Brad Jones, Matt King,  Jace Everett and Doug Powell, each a superior artist in his own right — help out, allowing  Bluebird to soar to unexpected heights.” (Lee Zimmerman / NoDepression)

http://www.westonboys.com/artists/dan-cohen/

John Flynn

Poor Man’s Diamonds

Poor Man’s Diamonds transcends any single genre – although bluegrass, blues, folk and burnished narratives make up the mix – and yet, his determined stance and authoritative presence ensures an instant connection.” (Bluegrass Situation)

http://www.johnflynn.net/

To schedule an interview with any of these artists, for review copies or more information, contact  Lance Cowan • LCMedia

(615) 331-1710 • lcmedia@comcast.net 

NEWZA

Joe Ely

B4 84

One of the first – ever recordings using an Apple Computer, B4 84 became Hi Res, which to date is the only Joe Ely CD not still in production.  Basically, Joe recorded that album and  submitted it to MCA execs, who insisted he re-record it using traditional recording studios.  These particular recordings are available for the first time — the “Director’s Cut” if you will — and it’s amazing how great they sound.  Liner notes by Steve Wozniak.

Joe Ely

Reverb: An Odyssey (a novel)

Review copies of Joe’s first-ever novel are available in pdf or Word format by request only.  Same for physical copies, which should be available next week.  

Michael Martin Murphey Continues Tradition of
Cowboy Christmas Ball

Christmas is a season of tradition, and no one knows that better than Michael Martin Murphey. The iconic musician has worked diligently to keep alive the spirit of the first Cowboy Christmas Ball for more than two decades.

This year, he launches into the next 20 years with his popular Cowboy Christmas Tour.  Sponsored by Spalding Fly Predators, Murphey and his acclaimed Rio Grande Band will spread Holiday Cheer through nearly 20 cities including a stop in Anson, Texas, where the Cowboy Christmas Ball originated in 1885.

“The first time I came to the annual Cowboy Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas, where the community has celebrated the holidays with this event every year since 1934, I was floored that the community had worked so hard to keep it going,” Murphey said. “I fell in love
watching the older couples dance and the dances being passed on to the younger people. It reconnected me to the tradition.”

Arriving in Anson, Texas on Christmas night, 1885, native New Yorker Larry Chittenden chronicled a dancing spectacle unparalleled in those days by composing the rhythmic, rollicking lines of The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, a six stanza verse that still remembered and anthologized many times in print and song.

Modeling a show after the annual Anson event, Murphey took the celebration on the road, and has over the past two decades, performed the ball in such prestigious venues as Bass Hall (Ft. Worth, TX), The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (Oklahoma City, OK), the National Hispanic Cultural Center Journal Theater (Albuquerque, NM) and The Performing Arts Center at Texas A&M University (Austin, TX).

This year’s tour begins on Nov. 21 in Colorado Springs and will continue through December. Visit www.michaelmartinmurphey.com for a complete listing of stops on the tour.

“The Cowboy Christmas Ball is steeped in everything I hold dear of growing up in Texas at Christmas time,” Murphey said. “All the old dances are here… the waltzes, the mazurkas, the Paul Jones, the Virginia Reel… all these dances are still done here. The women make their own costumes and clothes and the men still wear string ties and frock coats. It’s a family reunion of friends.

“This is my favorite season of the year,” Murphey continued. “We remember our fathers and mothers. We celebrate our children and we treasure our friends and the many blessing given by our Lord. It really brings out the very best in all of us.”

KEEP YOUR EYES AND EARS PEELED!!!

Bryan Hayes

Still Just A Man — 10 Years Later

Bryan Hayes crafts personal narratives with a novelist’s eye (“Soundtrack”) and an alchemist’s precision (“Mississippi”). Proof: The Memphis area resident’s seamless Still Just a Man….10 Years Later. Hayes’  recently re-recorded debut album spotlights a youthful songwriter in early peak form (“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”). “Ten years is a big milestone for me, an independent songwriter and traveling musician,” Hayes explains. “We felt like going back in and revisiting some of those songs was a way to say thanks to the folks who have been with us this entire time.”

http://www.bryanhayesmusic.com

It Never Rains on Anne’s Parade!

story & photos
by Josie Kapral

The year was 1884, the Statue of Liberty was completed but not yet in New York Harbor. The Naval War College was formed in Newport and the first roller coaster on Coney Island was used. Not too far from there, the people of Smithtown, NY, built a boat to repay a debt to a local grocer who helped them during hard times. This boat was Anne.
Obviously, the world has changed significantly since 1884, but Anne still takes residence on the waters of coastal New England and Fishers Island Sound, and on July 27, I climbed aboard for what was supposed to be the Antique Boat Parade sponsored by Mystic Seaport. The parade was cancelled due to inclimate weather. Captain Geoffrey Jones, who knows the Mystic Bridge schedule like most people know their address, knew the bridge would be opening soon and he decided now that the rain was letting up, that we would take Anne out on the Sound anyway. He mentioned his plans to a few other captains and they were also in for the trip. So we geared up and away we went.
Anne, a 19th-century oyster sloop, would have been the oldest boat in the parade, with Captain Jones at the helm, and accomponied by Jim Loomis and his grandson, Ramiro Zavala, Paul Manoli, Roger Schilling, Stuart Reininger and the Mooney Family who were in town visiting from Missouri.
“Anne isn’t going to let it rain on her parade”, said Loomis.
“There’s your tagline!” said Reininger.
They were both right. As we turned the boat past the seaport, there were still people waiting on the pier and along the river in anticipation of the boat parade. Anne was bringing smiles to the faces of the people waiting under their umbrellas and other boaters as we passed. People knew she was something special. Not just because she looks the part of an antique boat, but because she made her own parade. This is in large part to her captain, Geoffrey Jones, who has just as much heart as this 48 ft boat.
Anne lead her parade of boats, including Sea Lark and Glamour Girl, both owned by Frances “Sam” Crowley, Sea Rebel owned by Warren Jacque, Pastime, owned by Steven and Irene Haines, and Euphoria owned by Douglas Beach.
While navigating our way through the strings of rain back to the Seaport, Geoffrey and his crew shared their knowledge of the Sound. It was obvious their love for the area’s waters went beyond simple coastal beauty. It was about the history of the area, the ecology, and also the people. This is why Anne is special. It is not only the age of the boat and the character of its detail, but it’s the people that maintain her, and especially the captain that loves her and knows her as if she were a member of his family. While many things have changed since 1884, Anne’s charm and her beauty are still the same thanks to the people that love her.