REV. ROBERT JONES

I can't say enough about the National Storytelling Festival. It has been a part of my life for the past 27 years and every year includes storytellers and musicians who touch me with their talent, insights, great stories. Rev. Jones is one such person.

Here's a write-up from the Swannanoa Gathering site that gives a good description:

REV. ROBERT JONES
Robert B. Jones has more than twenty years of experience as a performer, musician, storyteller, radio producer/host and music educator. He has opened for and played with some of the finest musicians in the world, including BB King, Bonnie Raitt, Pinetop Perkins, Willie Dixon, John Hammond, Keb Mo’, Jorma Kaukonen, Howard Armstrong, Chris Smither, Guy Davis and many more. Born in Detroit, of a father from West Pointe, Mississippi and a mother from Conecuh County, Alabama, Robert grew up in a very Southern household. By age 17, Robert had already amassed a record collection of early blues and begun to teach himself guitar and harmonica, and by his mid-twenties Robert was hosting an award-winning radio show on WDET-FM, Detroit called Blues From The Lowlands. Influenced by legendary bluesman Willie Dixon, Robert developed an educational program called, Blues For Schools, which took him into classrooms all over the country, and for the next 15 years Robert polished his craft as a performer and a music educator. Answering a call to the ministry, Robert began to study under Rev. James Robinson, Sr. at the Sweet Kingdom Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, and upon Robinson’s death, Robert was called by the church to become its next pastor. He reshaped his Blues For Schools program into American Roots Music In Education (ARMIE), a program that could encompass a wider variety of music including spirituals, gospel and folk songs, and returned to performing in 2006. Especially influenced by sacred musicians such as Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, Rev. Dan Smith, Joshua White, Blind Connie Williams and Rev. Robert Wilkins, Rev. Jones now performs solo, with his good friend Matt Watroba, or with his wife of twenty years, Sister Bernice Jones, presenting “Holy Blues” to new audiences. Rev. Jones has also returned to radio as the host and producer of Deep River, a program of spirituals and gospel, which airs Sundays on WDET in Detroit.