The Chetboard

I never thought I'd see this again but the very first time I ever saw Tommy Jones was on the "Hee Haw" show back in about 1972. I just found this YouTube clip of his performance that night. Roy Clark introduced him by saying something like "Now here's a young man who spent some time Chet Atkins and he's going to come out here and amaze all of us with his guitar and when he gets done I'm going to take him back stage and step on his hands." Only Chet and Jerry had ever struck me so hard before that. Once again, I was "messed up" for life. It took me another 4 years before I finally met Tommy. The YouTube caption says that he was 17 but he personally told me that it was taped in late 1970 after he had just turned 16. His birth date was 10-8-54. I'm not sure how to put the link in as being "clickable" but here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cftC6rzZoWQ

Rande, thanks for posting this. I always enjoyed listening to Tommy play. He was amazing. I must have missed this show and I tuned in to it most of the time hoping to see a performance like this. You were lucky to spend some time with Tommy. I spoke with him at one of the C.A.A.S. and he seemed very modest and shy in person. He got over it when he played, though.
Ray

Does anyone have a copy of the cd that is called "Chet Presents Tommy Jones" on the CGP label that they could make a copy for me?

Phil,
I think I have it on CD.

Eddie

Phil - I gave up hope of ever finding it on CD, so I snapped up one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHET-ATKINS-PRE ... 2c63da4594

Must be a job lot as it's still listed on ebay - I must be a dinosaur as I still have a working tape player as part of my music system.

Angus

It was a total accident that I caught that episode with Tommy. I had never heard of him before and nobody could even tell me about him. By the time his playing caught my attention, it was too late to catch his name because they had already said it and I missed it. It took me 2 years to find out his name. That was in 1974. Then it took another 2 years before he was performing anywhere where I could go hear him and meet him. I eventually got him to perform at a school where I was teaching because he was traveling with Boots and was doing a show not far away. He spent the weekend with me and my family and that started a long string of visits back and forth. Yes, he was socially shy but somehow performed with a lot of confidence on stage. He was quiet but he knew what he was capable of.

The YouTube caption says that he was 17 but he personally told me that it was taped in late 1970 after he had just turned 16. His birth date was 10-8-54.

I first heard of Tommy in (I believe) 1965-66. A guitar player buddy of mine when I lived in Denver had gone to Florida on vacation and had heard him play on some local TV show there. I remember him saying that I "wouldn't believe" this kid he had heard down there, and that the kid could play CHET ATKINS "note for note"! This would have been when Tommy was only eleven or twelve years old! Unfortunately I never heard of him again, until I actually met him at the CAAS Convention in 1989...

I think it would be safe to say that Tommy Jones was what they would describe as a "child prodigy", because remember, this was long before there was a lot of the tablature and "learning aids" that is available to the young players of today!

David

David, you've got me beat for being aware of both Chet and Tommy before I was. I never even heard of Chet until 1963 when a pianist friend of mine loaned me the album "Teen Scene" because he knew that I was trying to get away from flat-picking and wanted to play the individual notes, more like a piano. That album was the beginning of a new life direction for me. I was in tears listening to it. YOU even met Chet long before that, in the 50's.

I was first aware of Tommy on that early 70's "Hee Haw" episode that I posted the clip of and YOU were aware of him in the mid 60's!

Yes, he was a "child prodigy", both with his musical ideas and with his natural physical ability. I used to sit with him and intentionally play the weirdest right hand picking patterns just to see how he would play them and he would play them flawlessly 2 and 3 times as fast as I did.

Have any of you watched someone play "Huntin Boots" in person? Tommy played it for me perfectly on his Hascal Haile guitar in 1988. We were both sitting down and I about fell over in my chair because he had just finished with "Take 5" and then went right into it.

Hey Eddie. Joe here. If you have a copy of Chet Presents Tommy Jones I'd love to get a copy. You can email me at bichud@aol.com. and give me the details on costs or trade. Never know I just might have something you want. I enjoy watching your picking on youtube. Thanks friend. All the best. Joe

The first time I heard Tommy was on Hee Haw and he played Black Mt. Rag. I thought they said he was like 15 yrs old. I didn't know anybody else used a thumbpick but Chet, Donnie Grace and me at that time, and I liked to have went wild trying to learn that tune. Donnie Grace showed me how to tune to G and a little of it, and I found a record of a group from Hopkinsville, KY that had Black Mt. Rag by a fellow named Gayle Moseley playing it. I bought that album and wore it out trying to learn it off Gayle's recording, lol. Man there was so little ways to get to hear and learn anything back then that I am so thankful that the young guys can have access to all the stuff out there nowdays. Tommy Jones was great. EP