Fenton "Jonesy" Jones - interview
This lengthy interview (nearly three hours) with Fenton Jones was conducted by Bob Dalsemer and Drew Tronvig in Los Angeles in 1985.
Dalsemer recalls: "In November, 1985 I toured the West Coast calling contra and square dances from Anchorage to San Diego. While in the Los Angeles area, my host, Drew Tronvig, told me that he had met Fenton “Jonesy” Jones, a nationally renowned Western square dance caller who had retired and lived in nearby Glendale. Drew called him and we managed to spend a delightful afternoon and evening with Jonesy at his home. Born in 1907 in Los Angeles, Jonesy began singing and playing guitar in local bands during the 1920’s. During the depression years his bands often played at senior centers in the L.A. suburbs and there began to be a demand for the band to play for square dances in addition to their usual couple dance repertoire. Jonesy started calling about 1940 in response to dancer requests."
The interview appears in five parts. The window displays the transcription of Part 1; the transcriptions (PDF files) and the actual audio recordings (MP3 files) appear under the Additional Files heading. Each will open in a new tab in your browser.
Transcriptions have approximate timecodes to assist readers who want to jump to a particular section of an audio file to listen more carefully. The transcriptionist used red to indicate names of people or other words that weren't clear.
Subjects: Person
Tags: Bob Dalsemer, Drew Tronvig, Fenton "Jonesy" Jones
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Fenton "Jonesy" Jones - photos |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Fenton "Jonesy" Jones calling square dance |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Fenton "Jonesy" Jones - Sets in Order, February 1961 |
| This Item | is related to | Item: The Caller - Jonesy |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Two singing squares - Fenton "Jonesy" Jones |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Catch All Eight (clip) - Fenton "Jonesy" Jones |
Additional Files
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Description
Dalsemer recalls: "In November, 1985 I toured the West Coast calling contra and square dances from Anchorage to San Diego. While in the Los Angeles area, my host, Drew Tronvig, told me that he had met Fenton “Jonesy” Jones, a nationally renowned Western square dance caller who had retired and lived in nearby Glendale. Drew called him and we managed to spend a delightful afternoon and evening with Jonesy at his home. Born in 1907 in Los Angeles, Jonesy began singing and playing guitar in local bands during the 1920’s. During the depression years his bands often played at senior centers in the L.A. suburbs and there began to be a demand for the band to play for square dances in addition to their usual couple dance repertoire. Jonesy started calling about 1940 in response to dancer requests."
The interview appears in five parts. The window displays the transcription of Part 1; the transcriptions (PDF files) and the actual audio recordings (MP3 files) appear under the Additional Files heading. Each will open in a new tab in your browser.
Transcriptions have approximate timecodes to assist readers who want to jump to a particular section of an audio file to listen more carefully. The transcriptionist used red to indicate names of people or other words that weren't clear.