David Jones - A Long Way Home (2018)

"A Long Way Home" covers many of my favorite folk pieces that influenced me over the years from such iconic artists as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Hedy West, The Kingston Trio, the Carter family and more. In addition, there are several contemporary creations that I love that fit the style of the CD, such as "Edelweiss" by Lerner and Loewe, from the musical, "The Sound of Music."

As I discovered in creating this CD, many "traditional" folk pieces are actually contemporary creations by folk artists who borrowed snippets of extant lyrics or musical phrases then knitted them together into a completely new song. By their very nature as the peoples' songs, the originals were often not passed down throughout the generations in written form. Melody might be associated with multiple lyrics. Also, melody might transform as it was passed from one generation to the next, hence a response of "That's not how I learned the melody;" or, "Those weren't the words I remembered." Therefore, it is likely impossible to discover the "original" piece, as it has been lost in the passage of time; and, were we to actually discover the "original," it would likely be unrecognizable to contemporary audiences. Therefore, I have recorded these songs based upon the traditions that were passed on to me in both choir, and vinyl.

David Jones