April 3, 2015
David Jones is an occasional actor, a sometime folk singer and a retired structural engineer. He specializes in Anglo-American traditional song, and songs from the great days of sail. He has performed throughout the U.S. and his native Britain, and was invited to Australia to sing at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. In the U.S. he has sung on PBS’s Prairie Home Companion, and for Simple Gifts, a PBS Christmas special. He produced four solo CDs and five with groups. His CD Widdecombe Fair, on the Dan Zanes label, received a Parents Choice Gold Award; he also sang on a Dan Zanes Grammy-nominated CD. He has lived in Leonia for 35 years. His wife, former ACS librarian Louise Sherman, has lived in Leonia, on and off, her entire life.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: London. I was born on the Isle of Dogs, a dockland area on the north side of the River Thames, but moved south of the river when very young. By birth I’m a Cockney, which means one who was born within the sound of the bells of Saint Mary-Le-Bow, a church in the city of London.
Q: What was your childhood like?
A: Bewildering. I turned 5 at the outbreak of World War II, in September 1939. Like most London children, my brother and I were evacuated, with thousands of others. We were taken by train to the south of England. There, local villagers picked out children to stay with them. A family with a son my age picked me, but when I realized my brother wasn’t picked, I ran back to him. The next day, a social worker took the two of us into town, and found some reluctant foster parents for us. We lived with several families, in both the Midlands and the South, during the war. We also spent some time back in London. During that time, our parents always knew where we were.
Q: NY Folk Music Society Magazine wrote that you are “one of the finest singers on the American folk scene on sea songs, ballads, drinking songs, and music hall.” When did you first begin singing?
A: In church and school choirs. Then, about 1954, I began to sing in folk clubs. London Music Hall songs were popular, and I knew a lot of those.
Q: How did you get interested in songs of the sea?
A: They are a big part of the folk music scene worldwide. In 1970, while at the South Street Seaport, two guys singing sea songs invited me to sing with them. That led to a singing gig every Tuesday night on a fishing schooner moored at the seaport. I then joined a group in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The NYC group made the centerfold of Life magazine and was featured in the NY Times.
Q: Where have you performed ‘songs of the sea’?
A: At sea music festivals throughout the United States. There is a fine sea music festival every June at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, where I have performed often. I sang with the Clearwater singing crew, performing at Shad and Pumpkin Festivals. Pete Seeger often turned up for these, and sometimes the American Pie guy, Don McLean. I also performed for The Sea Revels in Boston. The Revels is a company that presents celebrations of the winter and summer solstices through traditional song and dance. I have performed for them in many parts of the US for forty years. These days, I enjoy singing with The New York Packet and at the Exceedingly Good Song Night in NYC.
Q: What is the most interesting place you’ve lived?
A: In the early sixties, I spent four years working as a consulting engineer in East Africa–Uganda, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), and Kenya, when they were still British colonies. While in Uganda, I helped to design a coffee bean warehouse which was featured at the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal. An adventure I had there was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with a friend and a guide. We were the only climbers on the mountain; today, the mountain is always swarming with climbers. At the summit, I had my photo taken which shows me from the waist up, with just sky in the background, and no mountain. It could have been taken anywhere! But I did sign the book at the top, if anyone wants to check.
Q: What did you do for fun in Africa?
A: I enjoyed the great local music, and played football (soccer) for a local team. We played Goan, Indian and African teams. I also officiated at track meets in Uganda, and became a selector for the Uganda Olympic team that would compete in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. It was through this that I realized the incredible potential of the East African athlete. I still enjoy watching competitive track and field and have attended the World Championships in Moscow, Paris and Berlin.
Q: Why did you come to the U.S.?
A: In 1965 I saw an ad for a three-month engineering job in Endicott, NY. It was an opportunity too good to pass up. I didn’t intend to stay but one thing led to another. I thought it would be silly to leave without seeing the West Coast, so I drove my VW Beetle to San Francisco. I loved the city. I found an engineering job at Bechtel, and soon became active with the San Francisco Folk Music Club. It was a lively music scene; I sang in clubs and at festivals for four years. Unfortunately the influx of drugs and motorcycle gangs changed things. I returned to NYC and worked for the Port Authority until 1996, then worked as an inspector of major structures in NYC and New Jersey until retirement.
Q: How did you get involved with acting?
A: I played Mark Antony in Julius Caesar when I was twelve for my class play. Many years later a director asked me to act in some plays by Israel Horovitz at Gloucester, Mass. Stage Company. I did and it worked out well. On Martha’s Vineyard, I played Captain Joshua Slocum in Sailing Alone, based on Slocum’s great solo voyage around the world in the late 1890s. I had featured roles in Camelot, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music at John Harms Theater in Englewood, all directed by Leonia’s Chris Watson. In NYC, I performed in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Yeoman of the Guard and George Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing, and, best of all, the Ibsen series in NYC, which received great praise. I had parts in The Masterbuilder and Rosmersholm.
Q: How did you meet your wife Louise?
A: We met at a country dancing event in the basement of a church on 13th and 8th Avenues in NYC. She was the best dancer there. We have spent many summers at Country Dance Camp in Plymouth, Mass.
Q: Where do you most enjoy traveling?
A: Louise and I spend our summers in England, on a canal boat in Cambridgeshire. In winter, we retreat to Delray Beach Florida. I’m what you call a “snowflake” as I like to come and go; I don’t like to miss the ‘Exceedingly Good Song Night’ in the city.
Q: What was a most memorable trip you’ve taken?
A: Louise and I love to ride our bicycles. Our best trip was a bike and barge trip down the Mosel River, in Germany.
Q: What family tradition do you love?
A: Thanksgiving. Family and friends gather for three days at my step-daughter Lisa’s home in Horseheads, N.Y., near Ithaca, and entertain each other with stories, music, and great food.
Q: Where are you performing next?
A: On April 18 the Players Guild of Leonia is honoring the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with songs and stories from 1865, the fourth year of the war. I will be singing in it. What better venue than the Civil War Drill Hall!
Q: What do you most like about Leonia?
A: Good neighbors. The proximity to the city. It’s a small town that offers phenomenal entertainment throughout the year: the Leonia Chamber Musicians, the Players Guild, the annual ACS Classical Parents Concert, and Leonia Summerstage to name a few.
Leonia Lives 