Nic Jones
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I went to a Nic Jones gig in West London, it must have been in the early seventies and it was a small folk club. Nic arrived through the front door and there was no-one there to meet him. I said hello and Nic joined us at the table until it was time for his set. He remarked that all of the sophisticated people there made him feel like a country hick - I just smiled - all of those sophisticated people were there just to listen to him. Nic was a superb guitarist, a mean fiddler and a great singer - not to mention, very modest. I was saddened to hear that as the result of a car accident he was no longer able to play and has given up performing. Fortunately Nic appears to be in good spirits, there is an article in Living Tradition
Out of the early albums, only Penguin Eggs is available on CD, the rest of the catalogue was bought by Celtic Music in the eighties. This company has made no move to release the albums on CD, or promote the vinyl albums. They say that they will not release CD versions until the existing vinyl stocks have been sold. I have yet to hear of anyone who has managed to buy a vinyl copy and Julia Jones has said that they have received no royalty cheques since Celtic Music took over the catalogue. This story has been covered in articles in Living Tradition and Folk Roots. Nic has now released a new CD of performances from before his accident.
Here is the beginnings of a discography
of the solo albums:
I haven't had the opportunity to create an appropriate page for Nic, in the meantime here is a collection of snippets: In the late 60s Nic was in a group called The Halliard with Dave Moran In 1978 Nic Jones and Tony Rose joined forces with Chris and Pete Coe to form Bandoggs, a band that toured briefly and produced an album. Bandoggs and the Muckram Wakes joined forces to form the New Victory Band, releasing an album called "One More Dance And Then...". The band split up in 1982. Apart from his solo career and his work with these groups, Nic also played and sang on a large number of albums: The Transports, Maddy Prior, and June Tabor, 1977 - fiddle and a one-song cameo. Silly Sisters, Maddy Prior and June Tabor - wrote the music for 'Boys of Bedlam' and played fiddle and guitar. No Roses, Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band - vocals and a fiddle solo. Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band: Murder Of Maria Marten - fiddle, backing vocal JUNE TABOR Airs And Graces, guitar & fiddle Ashes And Diamonds, June Tabor - Nic Jones is credited as an artist but no details of what he did. Ballads, various artists, Fellside 110 - an archive recording of Nic singing 'The Bonny Banks Of Fordy' The Folk Collection, Topic CD470 The Voice Of Folk, various artists, Topic TSCD 705- includes 'Little Pot Stove' Christy Moore says of Annan Water: Annan Water is an eighteenth century re-working of an older song. A version was published in Dublin in 1728. The version that Christy sang was from Nic Jones. and of Little Musgrave: I was first drawn to this song by it's length. The first verse appealed to me because I too went to Mass to look at girls. I collected in a book which had no music, but I was lucky to collect a tune from Nic Jones album discovered on a field trip through Liam O'Flynn's flat. Mary
Black, Grapevine GrapeCD001 1982 - the sleeve notes for Anachie Gordon
say 'one of many songs learned from my brother Shay. He heard it from the
singing of Nic Jones'.
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