Kennedy Jones (musician)

Kennedy Jones or Jonesey (1 August 1900 – 6 September 1990) was an American guitarist and music writer. He was a pioneer of the "thumb picking" style often associated with Merle Travis...

He was born on a farm in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. He received his inspiration from his mother Alice who played several instruments. He married Irene Hicks, a pianist, and they performed together early in his career. He claimed to be the first guitarist to play using a thumbpick - at a square dance in 1918. Previously thumbpicks had been used only for the banjo or hawaiian guitar. He also played the fiddle and declined to join Merle Travis's band The Drifting Pioneers.

Jones composed the thumbpickers anthem "Cannonball Rag", but when Travis recorded the tune in the 1940s, the latter received the credit.

In 1939 Jones moved to Chicago. He played in several bands, one which included his sons, Donald and Kennedy Jr. His daughter Farre Lee too was an accomplished guitarist/singer, who regularly performed on radio station WLW. In the 1950s Jones moved to Cincinnati close to his daughter.

Kennedy Jones

Kennedy Jones may refer to:

Kennedy Jones (journalist)

(William) Kennedy Jones (4 May 1865 - 20 October 1921) was a British journalist, editor, and newspaper manager.

Early years

Born in Glasgow, "K.J." (as he was known to his friends) was educated at a local high school before leaving at the age of sixteen to start a career in journalism. He worked as a reporter and sub-editor for local newspapers, including The News and the Evening News. Moving south in the late 1880s, he worked for papers in Leicester and Birmingham before moving to London in search of employment there. Though his contribution to starting a new newspaper, The Evening, in 1892 proved futile, he remained convinced that a halfpenny morning daily would be economically viable.

Work with Northcliffe

After working for a time for The Sun as chief sub-editor, in 1894 he took a gamble along with The Sun's assistant editor, Louis Tracy and acquired an option to purchase the Evening News. Though enjoying a circulation of 100,000, the newspaper was running at a loss, and Jones and Tracy both hoped to sell the paper quickly to Alfred Harmsworth, who was looking to purchase his first London daily. In August the three signed an agreement in which Jones and Tracey each received 7½ percent of the profits generated by the newspaper. Jones soon took over as editor, remaking the paper with new typography and a greater emphasis on sports coverage, competitions, serialized fiction, and attention-grabbing feature articles, at which Jones excelled. This was a new style of journalism which proved enormously profitable.