The Chetboard

I just wanted to acknowledge that today would have been the 57th birthday of Tommy Jones. We lost him 9 years
ago just before he would have turned 48. Some of you never had the chance to know him or watch him perform.
He was one of the greatest.

Enormous loss to all guitarists. And especially to you Rande, since you were a close personal friend.

RIP Tommy

I did not know realize it was Tommy's birthday as I took time to tell a visiting guitar player from Florida about his fellow 'Floridian' Tommy Jones and how Chet took special interest in his playing from his teenage years through his short adult life. I told him of sitting a few feet away at the CAAS Kirk Sand exhibit and watching Tommy weave his magic with those long fingers and special arrangements in alternate tuning. "Chet presents Tommy Jones" CD gets regular play on my CD players. His playing is in a category all alone....never heard anyone quite duplicate what he did on guitar.

Thanks, Bruce. Despite my personal friendship, I don't claim to have any more "right" than anyone else to acknowledge Tommy. However, I do have a personal burden to keep his memory alive and to share his artistry with those who were never aware of him.

Ronnie, I'm glad that you are also helping to spread the word about Tommy when the opportunity arises.

Yes, you can all include 10/8/54 in your "important birthdates" records.

I remember Tommy. I use to sit at the bar with him in the MCS hotel and talk to him and pick his mind about Chet. He had a great touch on the guitar and I still miss him.
Woody Hill ggp.

I remember when Chet brought him on Nashville Now and Tommy played "Will the Circle be Unbroken" and I was just blown away. Up til then I had never heard of Tommy Jones. He and Chet talked with Ralph Emery and he mentioned that he chewed tobacco and even asked Ralph he wanted some.
After that, it was always a treat to hear Tommy at CAAS. Truly a great talent and missed like many of the great pickers.

Phil, I don't think you were born yet (1974?) when I first saw Tommy on the "Hee Haw" show in about 1971 or 1972. If I'm right about when you were born, you were 2 when Tommy and I became friends in 1976. You're right about the tobacco chewing. He lived with his folks down in Florida (on the banks of the Suwanee River) and we'd sit in his living room playing for hours while he chewed and spat into a coffee can sitting at his feet. His mom would always be busy going around doing little chores and his dad would sit and watch and admire his "little boy".

The last months I've dived into Tommy his music. Thanks to my friend Rande - who provided me a lot of information about Tommy his personality, musicality and the friendship - I came to know so much about him. I have played the LP "Pick It Tommy Jones" countless times the last few months, it's fan-tas-tic! His performances at Boots Randolph's club are also out of this world. He really is a underrated guitarist cause he's in my opinion on the same level as our other heroes!

Thanks for sharing that, Hendrik. It's worth it to me to see you having such a positive experience. Hopefully you
and I will meet one day.

Hello! - Brand new here, first post/question.....just saw the rerun of the Hee Haw ep with Tommy on it, was blown away, and started looking for info about him...and found out a lot about him and his playing - can not understand how I missed this talent before!

But it also mades me think of asking here if any one knows any details about the 'production' side of Hee Haw, which always seems to have very good sound quality and performance segments on these RTV re-runs - and I never really noticed [or appreciated?] that back in those days - does any one know if all that music was recorded live in the studio, or live vocals with backing tracks [many songs have more instruments that are seen] - some really great performances on those reruns! Thanks to anyone who may know, or know of any resources for info about that show.