ALAN JONES - MY FOLK STORY
By Alan Jones
Where do I begin? 1965 I reckon, as a school leaver and when I got my first guitar which was an Eko Texan from my mother's catalogue and started trying to learn to play, probably Beatles songs and the like to start with.
Shortly after an old school friend, Eric Pressley and a few others started Wath Folk Club, that lead me into the world of folk music, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan Pete Seeger and Donovan, were my early influences. So, I struggled on with the guitar, singing to my own accompaniment and getting nowhere.
The derogatory remarks and general lack of interest in my singing soon made me aware that I would never be a balladeer. From then on, I tried to form a few bands but with little success.
My love of the folk scene continued but as an audience member and a regular at Dave Burland's Club at the Civic Hall in Barnsley, with Regular singers like Derek and Dorothy Elliot, Jim Potter, Tony Heald, Tony Capstick, and I first saw a very young Mike Harding there as a guest.
Skip now to the late nineties and my first visit to Whitby Folk Week where I discovered sessions - surely I can do that. I was fitting in playing guitar as long I could see another guitarist with standard tuning to follow, as I could not work out the key for myself, I also found a regular session in Doncaster run be Siggy Fretwell. It was so much fun I bought a fiddle. Mmmm… big mistake, if you cannot sing in tune you don't stand much chance with an unfretted or un-keyed instrument. S
alvation came when a friend loaned me a tenor banjo to have a go on, and the rest is history as they say. The icing on the cake of my folk story came when I started the Barnsley Celtic Session in 2013, With the help of social media it was a success from the start, Raymond Padgett a regular visitor to the session playing his concertina posted a small piece about the session in the 2016 Spring edition of Folk Roundabout, in the club news.
I first discovered Folk Roundabout when Ray Padgett introduced me to a couple of mixed song and tune sessions in Wakefield run by David Nuttall about ten years ago, David Kidman was a regular and every quarter would have a bundle on sale with him.
With the appearance of Covid-19 I took out a subscription to make sure I still get my copy.
So that is about it, I have loved my life in the folk world, still do, culminating in running a session and playing in a trio called “Barnsdale Hood” just for charities and community events including folk clubs and festivals where any fees would go to a charity