Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 15, 1990 TAG: 9005150110
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RINER LENGTH: Medium
Jones, a New River Valley songwriter and folk musician, taught about 200 children at Riner Elementary School to clap just on time Thursday morning at a special program sponsored by the Blacksburg Regional Art Association.
Looking like a larger-than-life Raggedy Ann doll in a cornflower blue dress, Jones kept the attention of the children with her quick wit, her frisky personality and her music.
"I'm an artist, not a teacher," Jones told the children. "An artist is someone you can call by her first name."
But, despite her claim, Jones did quite a bit of teaching during the hour she sang and in the small workshops she led throughout the day.
Jones, who is affiliated with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, explained musical terminology, history and instrumentation in a way children could understand it.
"A violin and a fiddle is the same thing," she said "The only difference is how you play it. I'm just a country fiddler."
Raised in upstate New York, Jones' early musical education was "traditional and classic," she said.
"I was in the sixth grade when I first heard folk music . . . on a Library of Congress record. That's when I turned folk."
A 1971 graduate of the University of Michigan, Jones performed with several folk groups along the East Coast between 1977 and 1982.
She also has recorded several albums featuring her original compositions, including "Birthday Cake" with the Flying Cowboys and "Three Forks of Cheat" with Trapezoid.
A resident of Floyd County for the past three years, Jones had lived in Blacksburg since 1980.
"I moved to the area for the musical culture, the religion, the bonnets, the 'coon hunting," she said.
While some of her old friends - folks like Tim O'Brien and John McCutcheon - have risen to the top on the bluegrass circuit, Jones is satisfied with her life.
She enjoys her regular Friday night performances at Cockram's General Store in Floyd and her visits with school children.
"The top of Alum Ridge is as far as I want to go," she said.
Jones and her husband, Edward Wickline, often take their 4-year-old daughter Liza to regional bluegrass festivals.
"We all love this music," she said.
The children at Riner Elementary School seemed to love the music, as well.
Many sang along enthusiastically as Jones picked out some old favorites - "Short'nin' Bread," "John Henry" and "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain."
Nearly every young voice chimed in when she broke into a more recent song, "I Don't Wanna Stay with the Babysitter."
"Eyes on me, eyes on me," she reminded the pupils when their interest began to wane. She punctuated her request with sign language, teaching the children to sign the words in the songs.
When you're working with children, Jones said, " . . . you have to be on your toes."
She explained the origins of the instruments she used, the fiddle, banjo and guitar.
"Our ancestors brought the fiddle over from England. It originated in Italy," she said.
"When the banjo met the fiddle, they were so happy. . . . The hardest instrument to play is fiddle. The easiest to play is banjo. You can learn to play banjo in one day."
She demonstrated each instrument as she spoke.
"The guitar didn't come over here until the 1900's. It came from Spain," she said. Then she began to sing, "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song. . . ."
Jones also taught the children the importance of caring for musical instruments` "Lesson No. 1," she said, "is don't ever step over an instrument, no matter how much trouble it is to go around it."
by CNB