COTTAGE GROVE – Skip Jones didn’t take the traditional route to rock’n’roll stardom. His journey started in 1969 when he decided to leave the Bay Area and move to Eugene. On his bicycle.
“I moved here on my bicycle in 79,” Jones said during an impromptu mini-tailgate party at Bohemia Park after Wednesday night’s Concert in the Park show, Skip Jones & The Spirit of New Orleans. “I was bumming around town, living in my tent … I was basically a street person.”
It wasn’t long before he landed a job as a bicycle mechanic, and then the shop owner offered him a room during the winter months. Jones started meeting some local musicians, and soon became friends with James Thornberry. They wound up collaborating through 1986, at which point both musicians joined Canned Heat. Thornberry was the lead man of the band for 10 years. Jones’s stay lasted for only nine months, as the original bass player returned to the band.
That was OK with Jones. He has shared the stage with plenty of legendary performers, including the likes of Bo Diddley, The Coasters, The Platters, The Drifters, and many others. Still, he’s happy just being able to contribute to a vibrant Southern Lane County music scene.
Few have contributed more.
For the last 25-plus years, Jones and fellow musician Byron Case have hosted the Rooster Blues Jam every Tuesday night from 6:30-9:30 at Mac’s Nightclub in Eugene. During the Covid years, interest sort of died out, and the same handful of regulars continued to show up.
Now? It’s out of control, in a good way. Between the musicians and the fans, more than 100 people pack themselves into Mac’s on an average Tuesday night.
“The great success of the Rooster’s Blues Jam, I owe it to the great players who keep coming down, and it’s kind of crazy because the energy is all over the place since so many people show up,” Jones said. “But it’s fantastic because there’s a great group of dancers that pack the dance floor from the first set on, there’s a great crop of musicians who play their ass off, they play great and have a great time. And it all adds up, even the clientele, they’re eating and drinking and everyone’s having a great time.”
Jones said that Gavin “Rooster” Fox had asked him several times to take over the blues jam for him.
“I kept turning him down,” Jones said. “He finally leveled with me and told me he was sick.”
Fox died on 9/5/99 of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Steve Arriola, who plays guitar for Skip’s band, talked about the rich history of the blues jam.
“The pedigree goes back to Taylor’s when they were filming Animal House in Eugene and (John) Belushi was hanging out there and they got the whole idea for the Blues Brothers on SNL,” Arriola said, referring to the closed-down Taylor’s Bar & Grill next to campus. “I mean, Belushi was from Wheaton, Ill., which is just a stone’s throw from Chicago, so it was part of his influence anyway, but he was in the movie business, so John Landis and all those guys came up here to shoot that film, and they found a blues jam in town, and that was at Taylor’s bar on campus, and there was a whole culture that grew out of that.”
Arriola said he’s glad that Jones ran into Kelly Thibodeaux and his New Orleans-style band Etoufee. “Skip was in the right place with Etoufee,” he said.
“I was the drummer for five years, then moved over to keyboard,” Jones said. “John Fohl is in that band – he played with Dr. John. And T-Bone Weldon turned me on to Professor Longhair.
When I heard Professor Longhair, that was the gateway. I said that was what I wanted to be doing.
“Another influence was Gus Russell. When I heard him, I just stopped and said, ‘That is what I want to do.’ The New Orleans niche is such a great wealth of music to choose from and we haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg. We’re focusing on the great R&B piano players like Huey “Piano” Smith, Fats Domino, of course, Professor Longhair, Ernie K-Doe, Smiley Lewis, Allen Toussaint, Lee Dorsey. We’re just tapping into the beautiful R&B hits.”
They’re tapping into those hits frequently. Four times this summer, Skip and his band have played four nights in a row. This past week, they played at Bohemia Park on Wednesday, Mac’s on Thursday, the Florence Elks Lodge on Friday, and the Keg and Cask Festival in Oakridge on Saturday.
“My wife Mary has helped me book the band more than I ever could,” Jones said.
Jones is setting a healthy pace for a 74-year-old.
“I’m doing OK,” Jones said. “I take a lot of naps. I used to take one nap a day, now it’s two or three.”
Musicians have to grind out a living, but it’s a labor of love.
“It’s a helluva life to choose being a musician. But any band will tell you, if you have the right guy on drums, you’re golden,” Jones said, throwing some love in Kenan Edlar’s direction.
Even though the band members all live in Eugene, they all have a soft spot for Cottage Grove.
“We love Cottage Grove,” Arriola said. “I’ve been playing here 30 years … the Village Green, Stacey’s Covered Bridge, the Old Town Tavern. I lived in Creswell for a long time so I spent a lot of time here.”
“I want to mention Dale Smith – she started hiring us,” Jones said of the Brewstation owner. “I have to thank her for having the faith in us, she really got the ball rolling.
“We started doing outdoor festivals and Bohemia Mining Days about 6-7 years ago, and her faith in us got the ball rolling and we’re just enjoying the fruits of that.”
