Spartacus Jones

20 Questions: An interview with Spartacus Jones

I managed to track down the elusive "Spartacus Jones" at a barn just outside of Ithaca and we chatted while he groomed his horse, a handsome grey Arabian.

How would you describe your music?

You know that's the question every musician hates, right?
I like a lot of different kinds of music, so I like to write and play a lot of different kinds of music, too. Every song has a story and every story has a storyteller who tells it in his or her own language. Sometimes that language is "country." Sometimes it's "blues." Or rock. Or something else entirely.
Every song has its own fingerprint, something that is unique to that song no matter how much like other songs in the genre it might be. For example, take "At the Ritz." That's basically a country tune. But it also has this calypso rhythm going on and then this Preservation Hall kind of finish. It's country, but it isn't.

I don't like it when every tune on an album sounds the same. I like to do unexpected things. Use different instruments than the "standard." Go somewhere with the story you don't expect it to go. That kind of thing.

How's that for a non-answer?

Pretty good. Let me try it this way. Who's influenced you the most, musically? Any favorite song-writers?

Roy Orbison comes to mind right away. His stuff isn't like anybody else's. Hank Williams, I love some of his tunes. Buffy St. Marie. Judy Collins. Joni Mitchell.
Tom Paxton. Leonard Cohen. Lennon and McCartney wrote some great tunes. Especially their early stuff. I like Gil Scott-Heron. Lots of people, I guess.

How about singers?

Well, for a long time I wanted to be Sinatra when I grew up. But the job was taken.
Just as well, because then I don't have to grow up.

Elvis, of course. Roy Orbison again.
Blues singers, too. Bessie Smith. BB King.
Ella Fitzgerald, naturally. Esther Phillip.
One of my favorites is David Clayton-Thomas. Love his version of Stormy Monday.
There's something about Dolly Parton's singing that touches me, too. A kind of clarity. Or innocence. Or something like that.
Now if you REALLY want to hear some cats wail, listen to some flamenco singers. Powerful stuff. The Spanish blues.

How did you get started writing songs?

Ha! It's cheaper than therapy, right?

I wrote my first tune when I was about 13. I had just gone to see The Hank Williams Story. Not the best movie ever made. Walking home afterward, I tried to remember one of the songs in the movie, but I couldn't. So I made up my own.

Any good?

Hell, no. Your basic 3-chord, 12-bar standard. Cliche lyrics. Of, course, at the time I thought I'd just discovered fire. My guitar gently weeped. Or maybe chuckled.

How'd you pick up the guitar?

I always had kind of a thing for it, I'm told. Even as a toddler. I don't remember that, though. My old man had a Sears arch-top collecting dust in the closet. I used to sneak it out and plunk away. Then I won one of my own at a carnival one summer. I'll tell you that story sometime.
Anyway, I taught myself to play and, naturally taught myself a lot of wrong stuff. Not wrong exactly, but bad habits, you know. Much later on I took a few lessons and that made a big difference. For one thing, I found out you're not supposed to blow into it.

Any favorite guitarists?

Yeah. All of them.
I especially like Julian Bream. Eric Clapton. Carlos Montoya.

But I never particularly wanted to be a hot guitar player back then. Singing was my thing.
A lot easier to carry than a guitar and amp. For me, guitar was strictly accompaniment. Not very many gigs a capella.
I hit the road, in and out of bands, doing the solo singer/songwriter scene. Did that for a lot of years.

So you've been writing a long time. You must have a lot of material by now.

I guess I've got around 30 or 40 songs that I like well enough to keep. For every one of those there's probably 10, 20 — maybe more — that weren't worth hanging on to. Just practice, see. Hell, I used to sit down and write a song of some kind just about every day.
I'm a little better at it now. I don't write as much, but I keep more of what I write.

Does that mean we can look forward to hearing some more of them any time soon?

We're planning another session for the fall. We'll just take it slow. Knock 'em off a few at a time. That way we can give each one our best shot, really develop it, make each one unique in its way. I don't want to pound out a lot of stuff that all sounds the same.

Where do you your get your ideas?

I just write about what matters to me.

What matters to you?

Freedom.
Strong women.
And horses.
Come to think of it, maybe that's all one thing.

What do you mean by a strong woman?

Any woman who can keep up with me.
And any woman who can PUT up with me.

But some of your songs are pretty humorous. What about those?

Thanks. Sometimes you have to either laugh or cry. I'd rather laugh, if I can.

You write some very political things, too.

I guess that's fair to say.

I have to be political.
I live here. And I care what happens.
I love this country. I want it to be what it's supposed to be, what they promised me when I was a kid.

What's that?

You know. A republic. Of the people, by the people and for the people. With liberty and justice for all. That part.

Some people don't like it if you get political.

That's okay. They have a right not to like it.
Tell you what. I admire people who mean what they say and say what they mean and I try to be one of them. I can't stand people who jabber out of both side of their mouth, contorting themselves to tap-dance around something for fear of offending somebody. Look around. If you're not offended, pal, you're not paying ****ing attention. I try to be honest and direct, tell the truth insofar as I can figure out what in hell the truth is. If you don't like that, that's on you, not on me.

What's your favorite song of your own?

The next one.

How about a little something personal about you? What do you do when you're not doing music?

You're looking at it. I spend as much time as possible with my horse.