Questions & Answers with community faces

Tim Jones (48) grew up in Indianapolis and graduated from Indiana University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.

However, music has always been his true passion, and that showed up in his education—he took as many musical history classes as possible, and his senior thesis dove into the impact that popular music had on the dismantling of segregation in the American South. 

Though Jones began performing in bars at the age of 15, his first foray into the actual music business was at age 20 in 1995—it is quite a storybook tale.

Jones sent a cassette tape of his then-band Old Pike to the manager of a band that he liked in New York City; as it turns out, that manager also ran a record label that was part of Arista Records. Soon, a whole host of other major record labels all started taking notice. Jones spent two years going out to New York City every other month—which is what you did back then, before Youtube, Jones jokes—to showcase for the big-wigs.

Eventually that led to Old Pike signing with Sony/550 Records—Celine Dion’s record label—in 1998, and the record Ten-thousand Nights was released in April 1999. Although it failed to achieve the commercial success that many hoped for, it led Jones into a lifelong career in music. 

Two years later, in 2001, Jones moved to Los Angeles and fell in with a group of singer-songwriters at the renowned Hotel Cafe. 

In 2009, Jones met his future wife, Katie (39), at a singer-songwriter hangout, since they ran in the same circles of many artists, filmmakers, painters, and musicians. As it turns out, they had a lot in common, having both attended Indiana University, though at different times. Back then, Jones was on the road roughly 250 days of the year, so much of their relationship meant meeting up all over the country.

The couple were married in 2014 at Watervale Inn in Arcadia; Katie had grown up in Tampa, Florida, but had spent every summer of her life here in Frankfort. The couple dreamed of the day when they might be able to move here full time, but that would take a few years.

The Joneses were living in Nashville from 2012 to 2021, and that is where they had the first two of their three daughters, Ellis (7) and Willie (5). At the time, Katie was working on film production and Tim was playing live shows.

But all film production and live music came to a halt in March of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So the Joneses were both at home with their children for months for the first time ever. They decided that they wanted more of this family-together time, so they started to think about how their family could make that happen. Katie began pursuing other interests outside of film production, seeing what might suit her best. The family was coming to Frankfort as often as they could during the pandemic, and Katie found out about the new executive director position for The Garden Theater and its newly formed nonprofit by word of mouth during one of their visits.

On June 1, 2021, the Jones family moved permanently to Frankfort from Nashville. Since that time, a lot has happened—including the birth of their third daughter, Goldie (18 months), and the fact that more live musical concerts have been performed at The Garden than in recent memory. A big part of that is thanks to Tim Jones, who is the production manager and assistant talent buyer for the theater.

Continuing with our interview series on impactful Benzie County characters, The Betsie Current caught up with Jones as he was changing diapers, dropping the kids off at summer camp, and rehearsing for three different music projects slated to perform this summer.

The Betsie Current: What made you want to pursue music as a career? What do you enjoy about this line of work? 

Tim Jones: The short answer would probably be seeing U2 live on the Joshua Tree Tour when I was 11 years old in 1986. The long(er) answer would probably be that, in a past life, I was a skald—high-class jester for important events and battles for vikings in the Scottish Isles. I enjoy traveling, even to small little towns in Michigan or any place I have never been before. I’ve been to every state, except Maine! I know, Maine; I have to get there! I love meeting new people and staying in touch with old friends. I love singing. I love curating an evening for someone and planning out songs that I’m gonna play and watching moods and vibes change before my eyes. I like collaborating and writing songs and using my whole brain power to move around notes and melodies and math, and then infusing it all with heart, feelings, subconscious desires, fears, and trying to explain them all in words. I like the mystical possibility of it all, and that each show or event or songwriting session can be a shared moment of creation for an experience or song that didn’t exist before.

Current: Who are your big musical influences? What genres do you like to play, and how does that compare to what you like to listen to? What instruments can you play, and which is your favorite?

Jones: I grew up in the ’80s and really got turned onto music then. U2, Prince, Hall & Oates, Bon Jovi, Genesis, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson—I really am into the nostalgia that those sounds make me feel right now. My uncle was a missionary in the Philippines and gave me his whole record collection from the late ’60s/early ’70s when I was 14 while he was overseas. The Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young “4 Way Street” live record just blew my mind; I got super into Neil Young and Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. The first songs I wrote were trying to emulate Neil Young. When I went to college, Glen Gass had started the first “History of Rock n Roll” at a major university, and I delved into all of that hard. Semesters on Motown, The Beatles, the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s; I basically got a degree in the history of popular music. I love to play songs that I wanna hear. And to try new things. I love great voices and simple songs. I love old country music, and I’ve never met a Bob Dylan song that I didn’t learn something from. I love soul music.  Doo-wop music from the ’50s and early ’60s, before the Beatles and before JFK was killed. When there was a rainbow around every corner. I can play the guitar, piano, and a little bass. I played trombone in high school, so I could probably make sounds with that. I’d love to be a smoking hot bass player or be able to play piano like Pig Robbins, Floyd Cramer, Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis. Big goals!

Current: What does a typical day of work look like for you? 

Jones: My life has changed some since moving up here to Northern Michigan. Katie and I co-parent, but most days, I’m doing pick-up and drop-off for all three girls, because Katie likes to keep regular hours at the theater. I then would either be working on the computer, preparing for upcoming events or shows, writing with Aaron Dye—which we try to do once a week—and then performing at night. If it’s an out-of-town event, then I’m flying and working through all the logistics of that.

Current: We know that you have been doing music for a long time. How much does a musician with your background need to practice? How much time are you writing new music and/or recording? Tell us what your process looks like. What do you think is different about the music that you are creating from what is already out there?

Jones: I rehearse songs for events, so I’m playing a lot from May to November. I love adding new songs. In Nashville, I was writing two to three songs a week for years. I have more than 100 songs that I’ve written that are published and on streaming services—some for my own projects, and some for other people. When I moved up here, I really didn’t write very much for a couple of years, except when I would go back to Nashville. But recently, Aaron Dye and I have been writing a lot of songs. I think the “Stories That Heal” project has really helped me to find my focus again up here. My process is to write down a line or something that I hear, and then show up with a little something and try to finish in a few hours. Or to listen to what someone else may bring in, and try to hear what’s intriguing objectively, and then let the melody be the guide. I want it to be personal to me and my co-writer but have some element that may be universal to the listener. Communicating with the spirit world. For the first 10 years, I wrote purely from a personal perspective; then the last 10 years, I was writing a lot for projects and thinking about what a particular genre of listener might wanna hear. I’d like to really combine those things now with all of the elements and feeling that the natural world up here brings me. I’m also really into easy-breezy things right now—yacht folk rock and soul.

Current: How have you witnessed the music world itself change since you started playing? How did that further change when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020? How have things “gone back to normal,” and what kinds of things do you expect will be a “new normal” in the music industry?

Jones: I’ve been playing music in bars since I was 15 and touring professionally since I was 20, so I’ve seen a lot of changes, but most of them tangential. At the core, I’m still setting up in some location, singing songs that I and other people have written, and experiencing and sharing joy and pain. I honestly had never stopped to examine what I did and how I made my living until I was forced to stop—and then I had to ask myself who I was without music.  Without my identity as a songwriter or a performer. It was pretty scary. I was a little depressed that maybe my life’s pursuit had been selfish, egotistical, and unnecessary. We spent as much time as possible up here in 2020 to get away from Nashville and all of the disappointment there. Frankfort/Lower Herring Lake has been my wife’s refuge since she was born, and it has been mine since she brought me up here in 2010. We always dreamed of a life up here, but didn’t know what kind of jobs we would have. When the opportunity came up for Katie to become the executive director of the non-profit that owns the theater, and for me to help her with programming, it just seemed like a dream, and it has been. When we first moved up here, I had no jobs and no songwriting appointments and no one expecting anything from me for the first time ever, and honestly, I’d never been happier. Just spending time with the kids and supporting Katie for almost a year before I dove back into really playing. I think Rick [Schmitt] at Stormcloud asked if I would come in and play some songs, and I hadn’t done a solo show in like 10 years, but I picked some songs, and people cheered me on, and it felt really good. And here I am, two years later, really enjoying it all again. I hope people cherish every moment they are hearing live music now—I know that I have such a new and profound and less judgmental pleasure in watching, playing, and hearing it again.

Current: What role do you think music, musicians, and songwriting play in the world? Why is this so important to you?

Jones: I don’t think there has ever been a great city or country or state or whatever entity you want to describe that didn’t have an appreciation and cultivation of art and artists. I think music is the language of the soul. My senior thesis was about how popular music did as much, if not more, to help dismantle systemic segregation in America as legislation. A great song can change someone’s heart in minutes. It can help us to see that we aren’t alone and, at the same time, give a name to the loneliness that we feel. It can express joy and inspire others to experience it deeper. I think singing lets so much out. Even subconsciously. Trying to make a living and a lifestyle around music has brought plenty of disappointment and heartbreak, but I am grateful every day for it giving me such a deeper understanding of humanity and allowing me to connect with people all around the world.

Current: How have you seen your work grow and change? How do you hope that it will continue to grow? What is next?

Jones: The community up here has really embraced me. I am so very grateful that people call me and ask me to play at their weddings and parties and breweries and wineries and that people really seem to enjoy the songs that I write and the selections of others I choose to play. I think just in the three years since we moved here, at first, I really had to fly a lot and go out of town to make the living that I wanted to, but now it’s opened up to really playing a lot just within Benzie County, or traveling within two to three hours from here, so I don’t have to take as many planes. I still like to get away, though. As someone who has spent most of my life traveling and playing shows, it’s in my blood to get out, but after two nights, I’m ready to come back home. I didn’t know what a country mouse I was until I moved here. The air is literally light up here, and my senses are awakened, and I don’t like tall buildings, traffic, or too many people around. Just a little taste of city life, and I’m ready to be back home. I love being Katie’s husband. Coming back home and having all the girls shouting, “Daddy’s home,” is the greatest sound/feeling in the world. I hope that people continue to love what I do up here and love Whiskey Wolves of the West and bring them up every other year, and Truth & Salvage every other year, and that people really fall in love with Dye Jones & the Get Down—also known as Tim Jones & the Up North All Stars, also known as Tim Jones & the Garden Gnomes. As far as what’s next, I’m really excited to be touring Northern Michigan with Truth & Salvage this summer: we have a show at The Garden Theater, a free show at Beulah’s Music in the Streets, which is always a blast, and we’re playing at BlissFest, as well as teaching songwriting at Interlochen Arts Academy for three weeks at the end of July. Then in August is something really unique: The White Moth was the first film that The Garden Theater ever showed, 100 years ago, back in 1924. It was technically a “silent” film, but it had music instead of people talking. So Andrew Dost, Aaron Dye, and I got together to compose new music for the film, which we’ll be performing live. It’s going to be a hoot. Then at the end of August, Dye Jones & the Get Down will be performing at Minnehaha Brewhaha. And, per usual, I have lots of private parties and events all throughout the summer.  

Current: What kinds of things do you do for fun, when you are not working? What other things are you involved with? How did you get involved with them, and why are you passionate about these causes?  

Jones: I love riding my bike, which I never get to do. I love going to Kindred Waters yoga classes in Beulah. I love going up to Leland, Glen Arbor, and Empire with the girls; the outlet on Lower Herring Lake is our special spot, too. I have a poker group with some of the coolest guys on the planet who also live here; we talk and text a lot more than we actually play cards. I love the Monthly Movie Club collaboration between The Garden, The Betsie Current, and Kilwins, but I hardly ever get to stay for the whole movie, because it’s bedtime at home. I really love being around these wild, wonderful, inquisitive, talented, amazing children we created; they make me feel more alive than anything I’ve ever done—and they also completely zap every ounce of my humanity and identity at the same time. I helped to start the Frankfort Area Community Land Trust with Jay White, Liz Negrau, Todd Bruce, and others back in 2022; I’m the co-chair of the Relationships and Marketing Committee with some of the coolest cats around, including my co-chair Margie Devine, Nancy Reid, Paul Danes, Andrew Brickman, and our fantastic executive director, Annette Knowles. I got involved for very selfish reasons. I want The Garden Theater to blossom, and I want my children to have the best school and library, hardware store and hospital, restaurants and shops, so we have to have places where all of these artists, patrons, teachers, librarians, nurses, bartenders, servers, shop owners, shopkeepers, and year-round residents can live. I love the community land-ownership model, empowering new home buyers.

Current: We know that you also did a fun collaboration with the local school; can you describe it for our readers?

Jones: I work with the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville’s program called “Words & Music,” where students from third to 12th grade from all over the country send in lyrics, and I craft music to turn them into real songs. It was originally all based out of schools that could travel to the museum, but during the pandemic, it all went online, so I was doing it with schools all over the country and in Canada and on Indigenous Reservations. At Frankfort Elementary, Sue Hammon did the training so that her sixth grade class could submit lyrics, and then I got to perform them live with the students and the Hall of Fame on Zoom. It was amazing! So many great young poets and artists that we have here; and the bonus was that it fit within their ELA [English and Language Arts] curriculum. I just finished a similar kind of project in collaboration with The Garden Theater and Interlochen Public Radio [IPR] called “Stories that Heal,” where Aaron Dye, Grace Andreasen [communications director for the Garden], and I met weekly at Benzie Central High School over some donated Papano’s pizza with some really cool teens who opened up about their struggles and pain and ways to find healing in today’s real world. Then we all wrote songs together and recorded them at Interlochen and performed them at the Garden on May 19 for an amazing Community Healing project—you can check out the “Stories That Heal” podcast on any platform.

Current: How have you seen Benzie County/Northern Michigan change since you first came up here? What are your hopes for the area in the future? 

Jones: I think there is really positive, exciting momentum all through the state of Michigan, but especially Up North. Something is happening here, and I feel like I am surrounded by so many positive people that want to live and work together and take care of each other and this land and create a better world for other humans. It’s welcoming progress, and I am so happy and grateful to be alive for this moment in time. I hope we continue to care for this land the way that the Indigenous people did for hundreds of years before Europeans were here. I hope we care more about doing what’s right than what is profitable—not all money is good money. I hope we can bridge the gap between the “summer” people and the year-rounders and realize how much we all need each other. I hope that we grow gently to embrace and welcome newcomers and new ideas. I’d love to see more housing built. It’s a dream of mine to have a big building within walking distance of downtown that would have a pool and daycare center on the bottom floor and then senior housing and “missing middle” housing on the second and third floor—a multi-generational, affordable, community-minded project. [Editor’s Note: “Missing middle” housing is identified as housing for the “middle class,” and you can read more about it in an article by Liz Negrau that The Betsie Current published back in 2022; find it in our online archives.] I’d love to see a boutique hotel down by the water. I’d love for Mimi’s in Interlochen or TC Latino to open an authentic Mexican restaurant location here in Frankfort, so I don’t have to drive so far for their delicious foods. I’d love to see every business open year round, because the town would always be thriving and able to support it. I’d love to see more things built in America, in general, but would love to see more invested in trade schools, so that people had other opportunities to live and work here, outside of the tourism/hospitality/service industry.

Current: What are the biggest challenges and rewards of living/working in Benzie County, and in Northern Michigan, in general? What is the best or most rewarding part of your job?

Jones: Driving an hour one way to the nearest airport isn’t ideal, but I’ve never waited in line for more than 10 minutes once I got there, so it has its upside, too. I love food, so I wish we were able to support a few more varied ethnic restaurants. The ability to walk my kids to school and know that I have a dozen people I could call at any moment that could help me with them is incredible. To be able to walk to the beach and five different parks and the bike trail and skate park and a hospital right here is all pretty mind blowing. Making friends with so many like-minded people who are raising their children with ours and care so much about this town makes me feel so safe and happy. I love making people happy. Maybe it’s the “middle child” in me, but when people are smiling and singing and having a great time, my heart grows 10 times its size.  

Current: What could Northern Michigan do to attract more and/or retain talented people in this area? What else does Benzie County/Northern Michigan need?

Jones: I think housing is the biggest issue. People want to live and work here but often are having to commute 20 to 45 minutes away. We are doing it here in Frankfort with the land trust, so we can pat ourselves on the back a little in that we are progressive in that way. But we still need more housing, more childcare, and more places for seniors and the “boomer” generation to transition out of their bigger homes and into multi-generational, health-conscious housing that is walking distance to all of the services that downtown Frankfort has to offer. We need more great teachers and artists—and the infrastructure to help them create—and we need more manufacturing and trade schools to develop the future carpenters, plumbers, electricians, computer techs, nurses, etc.

Current: What are your favorite local events and activities? Any favorite dining, recreation, hiking spots?

Jones: I am partial to everything at The Garden Theater—Monthly Movie Club being my new favorite event there. I love the Benzie Area Historical Society’s lecture series; I have a history degree, so that tracks. I love the Elberta Farmers’ Market; I love making a whole dinner with only things from there every Thursday. I’m a real sucker for the Pumpkin Drop at Frankfort Fall Fest, the Tree Lighting in downtown Frankfort when the kids sing, Benzie County Community Chorus shows twice a year, anything at the Benzie Shores District Library with Miss Caitlin. Weekly trivia during the “off-season” at Stormcloud was our favorite, until we had Goldie and it was just too hard to get away, but I’m hoping we return; I love going to the Stormcloud’s Taproom in the summer with the kids. Rock’s Landing, I think, is one of the best restaurants not only in this county but in this country. I love the atmosphere at The Manitou. We love to sit on the patio at Vita Bella with the kids and have an Aperol Spritz and dinner and look at the boats in Betsie Bay. Katie and I got married at the Watervale Inn, which is where she was a guest and a server for many years, so anything that is happening there I like to go to, also.

Current: What does your perfect summer day look like in Benzie County? How would you spend it?

Jones: Coffee from Perks, a stroll down Main Street, and buying some linen clothes from Crystal Lake Adventure Sports. Taking the boat to the outlet on Lower Herring Lake. Letting the kids play at the Mineral Springs Park playground. An Aperol Spritz at Vita Bella. Swimming at our friends the Joneses’ pool down the street from us—no familial relation, despite the same last name. Watching the kids “cardboard sled” down the Life Saving Station hill in Elberta and eating pizza from Furnace Street Distillery, then someone taking us out on their boat for a sunset cruise up the coast to the Point Betsie Lighthouse.

Interested in seeing a live show with Tim Jones this summer? Truth & Salvage performs at The Garden Theater on July 7, at Beulah’s Music in the Streets on July 11, and at BlissFest on July 12 and 13. As mentioned above, Jones collaborated with Andrew Dost and Aaron Dye to create new music for The White Moth, which will take place at The Garden Theater on August 7. Meanwhile, Dye Jones & the Get Down perform at Minnehaha Brewhaha on August 31. For more, follow @TimLeeJones on Instagram. Learn more at WhiskeyWolvesOfTheWest.com and TruthAndSalvageCo.com; for music-related questions, email WhiskeyWolfJones@gmail.com. For anything related to the Frankfort Area Community Land Trust, or other questions, email TimLJones723@gmail.com for more information.

Featured Photo Caption: Tim Jones is a musician and father in Frankfort. Photo courtesy of Tim Jones.