Fern Jones Issue #25

Fern Jones: The Glory Road (Numero Group)

By Anne C. Johnson
Published: September 1st, 2005 | 4:41pm

Fern Jones got her start in playing honky-tonks on Saturday nights until her husband became a preacher for the Assembly of God congregation. She gave up make-up and jewelry (and showing cleavage) and joined him on the evangelical circuit. In the span of 20 years, Fern and Ray Jones (she sang, he preached and sang along) performed in over 2,000 tents and churches for thousands of people all over the South. Fern Jones: The Glory Road is a collection of her style of church music — which made Sunday sound more like Saturday — that was so influential to such southern musicians as Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash (who covered Jones' " I Was There When it Happened").

Music “anthropologists” the Numero Group have resurrected Singing a Happy Song, the record that Jones originally released with Dot Records, plus some recordings supplied by Fern's daughter. Nashville “supergroup” guitarist Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland, pianist Floyd Cramer, bassist Joe Zinkan, and drummer Buddy Harman — all of whom had just finished recording with Elvis in 1958 — backed Jones up on "Singing" and add yet another reason to reissue this record.

Think what you will of the non-secular point of view, Fern Jones' recordings are an important missing chapter in the history of modern music and should be an essential part of any record collection. Besides, it is impossible not to be moved by such uplifting tunes as "Be Glad You're You" and "Let Tomorrow Be," which have universally inspirational messages.

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