1. Nic Jones was born on Nicolas Paul Jones; 9 January 1947 and is an English singer, songwriter and musician.
21 Facts About Nic Jones
1. 2.
Nic Jones was born on 9 January 1947 in Orpington, Kent, England, where his father owned a newsagent's shop.
3.
Nic Jones first learned to play guitar as a young teenager and early musical influences included such artists as The Shadows, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery and Ray Charles.
4.
Nic Jones's interest in folk music was aroused by an old school friend, Nigel Paterson who was a member of a folk band called The Halliard.
5.
Whilst playing with The Halliard, Nic Jones learned to play the fiddle and how to research and arrange traditional material.
6.
The couple settled in Chelmsford and Nic Jones decided to pursue a career as a solo folk artist.
7.
Nic Jones started playing professional gigs in 1969, and in 1970 released his first album, Ballads and Songs for Trailer Records.
8.
Nic Jones joined fellow folk singers Jon Raven and Tony Rose for the 1973 trio album Songs of a Changing World.
9.
Also alongside Tony Rose, as well as Pete Coe and Chris Coe, Nic Jones was a member of short-lived folk group, Bandoggs; one eponymously titled album was released in 1978.
10.
Nic Jones suffered serious injuries, including many broken bones and brain damage, and required intensive care treatment and hospitalisation for a total of eight months.
11.
Nic Jones's injuries left him with permanent physical co-ordination problems, unable to play the guitar as well as before, and no longer able to play the fiddle at all.
12.
On 5 August 2010, after an absence of 28 years, Nic Jones made a return to the stage.
13.
Nic Jones appeared at an event dedicated to his music at Sidmouth Folk Week.
14.
On 30 January 2013, Nic Jones was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
15.
On 23 August 2013, the Nic Jones Trio performed on the opening night of that year's Shrewsbury Folk Festival, in the course of which it was announced from the stage that it was to be their final performance.
16.
Nic Jones developed an intricate, rhythmically complex finger picking and strumming guitar style.
17.
Nic Jones started off playing in standard guitar tuning but then gravitated towards a variety of open tunings after hearing the recordings of Martin Carthy, whom he acknowledges as an important influence.
18.
Nic Jones then played a Fylde Oberon acoustic guitar before moving on to a Fylde Orsino, which better suited his style.
19.
Nic Jones used a plastic thumb pick and "bare" fingers.
20.
Nic Jones used selective string damping to achieve other percussive effects such as on "Billy Don't You Weep For Me".
21.
Nic Jones has sung, and played guitar and fiddle, on recordings by many other folk artists.