More about Jon Baily

This is from my friend Ryan Gould, a fine local bassist and all around cowboy here in Austin TX. He too shares his thoughts about out old pal Jon.

Yesterday, a friend of mine, a musician of good spirit and a veteran of this country’s armed forces died.

Jon Baily, a banjo player, from California, spent his last years in Austin, Texas supporting the Austin Banjo Club and the Austin Traditional Jazz Society.

I met Jon at a Traditional Jazz Society function. He scrawled on the back of his business card the directions to the Banjo Club and insisted that I show up the following week. I did.
Jon went out of his way through those, my first couple visits to the Banjo Club, to make me feel welcome and to insist on my return. From those first visits to the Banjo Club on, Jon would share his love for music with me through telephone calls and emails. He would insist that I come pick up some band’s CD that made him think of me. He would email me all manner of information concerning music in all its forms that he found of interest.

Jon's love for music and his desire and willingness to share it were impeccable and so very appreciated.

Jon was also proud of the banjo pickers in the Club who were veterans. He summed up their stints in the military for me on different occasions. He shared with me any story that filtered through him that related to our nation’s warriors.

I’m ever thankful for having gotten to know this man and will live more fulfilled having been gifted by his hearty spirit.

If you have the extra time in the days following, take a minute, please, and realize what’s good around you. Be thankful for the elders in our musical family and take heart in their vitality and nature. Without these good people, our lives would be less.

Thank you, Jon Baily. I will continue to play tunes to the best of my ability for you!

- Ryan Gould

Rashoman and the trick of memory...

I was surfing the other night and found this article about workshop stages at the Calgary Folk Festival.

Context: For reasons I'm still not clear about, I got a call out of the blue from the booking agent of the Winnipeg Folk Festival asking if I was interested in bringing one on my bands up there for a performance next summer. He said that maybe we could hook up with the Calgary Folk Festival as well to make it possible to bring maybe both of my bands up there. Curious to see if much had changed since my last visit to Calgary 6 years ago, I Googled "Bad Livers" and "Calgary Folk Festival."

I found this, from Festival then associate producer Kerry Clarke, interviewed in 2003.

"Not all workshops go smoothly, either. Clarke remembers one disaster where she had arranged to have alt-country band Bad Livers in a number of workshops with Jon Langford and Sally Timms, former members of country-leaning punk band The Mekons."

For the life of me I have no idea what this nice lady is talking about.

All I remember about them was being introduced to Jon and Sally just before we went onstage, hanging out a bit and then trying to find something we could relate to them musically. It was a challenge to be sure as they are really great and talented people, but they had neither good acumen for their instruments nor an understanding of American music beyond a few superficial references. A clumsy and ill advised pairing, poorly rendered maybe. But I wouldn't call it a disaster however. Nobody got their ass kicked on stage or anything and everybody left friends.

I do recall at Calgary quite clearly one of the best festival workshops I ever took part in where Danny and I crawled onstage with Finjan, one of Canada's premiere Klezmer groups, and joined them in one of the funkiest and best versions of "Orange Blossom Special" I've ever heard much less played. Just as fun was the picking session with members of Balfa Toujours later the same day. I can't wait to do it all over again, this time with one of my own little outfits.

Personally, I was having a really bad time that week as the crepitis in the joints of my hands were just becoming known to me. The Vioxx samples I was given by my doctor to fight the inflammation in my joints made me so ill that I eventually had to retreat to the medical tent. (If you must get sick someplace without insurance, you can't beat Canada people. The pain in my hands and arms became so bad, I essentially quit playing altogether for an 8 month period after that.) It was also stressfull for me as it was the next to last Bad Livers date on the books, but that's another story altogether.

All is forgiven I guess, as Calgary has asked me for a press package with a mind to book one of my bands up there in 2006. We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted.

Jon Baily RIP

This is how I will always remember my friend Jon Baily.

Sitting there, solid as a rock, with his beloved Paramount Plectrum banjo. Always ready with a joke and an infectious smile, Jon was one the reasons why I so much enjoyed visiting the Austin Banjo Club "rehearsals" on Monday evenings.

Life dealt Jon a bad series of hands late in life, but he mostly kept it to himself and soldiered on with great humor and dignity. He was a father, and veteran, and a great bon vivant. Above it all however, Jon played the hell out of the banjo. It gave him such happiness. Not just the instrument itself, for which he had an inate gift, but the fellowship and joy of playing music with others. You won't find his records anywhere. But he will be remembered very fondly by the literally thousands of people that played for, playing concerts at retirement centers all around the Austin area, and by his banjo brothers at the Austin Banjo Club.

I'm a better man for having met him and I miss him more everyday.

Welcome to Heaven. Here's your banjo.